It doesn’t last long, but you can see it Halo: The campaign has evolved on the PlayStation Store is surreal. Two decades ago, the thought of Master Chief jumping into Sony’s shores would have been considered a crime in the eyes of die-hard shooter fans. And yet here we are, as more and more Xbox titles continue to find a home on competing consoles, including Xbox consoles Nintendo Switch2. Appearing at the Tokyo Game Show, Phil Spencer shows support for Nintendo hardware, but does that extend to the next chapter in Halo history?
Phil Spencer’s love for the Nintendo Switch 2 is well documented. Whether he’s calling Nintendo “masterful” after revealing the Switch 2 or praising the company as a partner he wants to work with often, Spencer has no shortage of love for the platform. Now that the console is several months into its lifespan, the list of modern Switch games is growing and will likely include more Xbox-specific titles. In an interview with Famitsu, Spencer explains that owning an Xbox console is no longer critical in order to play on it.
He tells the outlet that “we’re committed to lowering the barrier to accessing our games through services like Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Game Pass. However, if there are people who want to play our games on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch 2, we’d like them to play our games on those platforms.” Spencer associates this with the premiere of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, which comes from Activision and the external studio Iron Galaxy. For a full summary, check out my review of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 with a rating of 8/10.
In addition to Spencer’s perspective on where you play Xbox games, other changes are already happening. Just a few days ago, Bethesda’s announcement of the release of Fallout 4 on Nintendo Switch 2 surprised RPG fans. While I would definitely like to hear more about the long-rumored Fallout 3 remaster, it’s a start. At this point, it seems like everything is fair game when it comes to the Xbox library. After all, Forza Horizon 5 is on PlayStation 5.
But now the biggest FPS franchise in the Xbox arsenal is breaking free from Team Green. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a modification of Master Chief’s debut adventure in Unreal Engine 5, with a modern four-player co-op feature, 4K graphics and completely modern story content. Split-screen multiplayer is the stuff of legend in Halo: Combat Evolved, and while it didn’t support official online play at the time, that didn’t stop experienced players from figuring it out. However, this does not mean that Halo Studios placed them here correctly.
“Focusing on the campaign experience means we can fully concentrate on capturing the atmosphere, the tone – the emotional impact of what made the first campaign so special and iconic,” says executive producer Damon Conn in a recent video Xbox cable post. While I’m not entirely fond of the overly glossy sheen it currently has, I think it’ll be great fun to play with friends – if you’re playing on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, or PC.
Leaving out the Nintendo Switch 2 seems like an odd choice to me, considering it’s clearly capable of handling the hardware. To see this, just look at the decision by Cyberpunk 2077 or IO Interactive to release 007 First Light on the portable computer. I’m hoping there will be a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Halo: Campaign Evolved in the future, but at the moment I’m not entirely convinced.
Are you looking forward to Halo: Campaign Evolved? Be sure to let us know on the Pocket Tactics Discord server.
