Halo: Campaign Evolved launches July 28, adds new story arc

Halo’s first campaign is being pulled into a broader marketplace than the series ever had, and the biggest change is not just a fresh coat of Unreal Engine 5 paint. Halo: Campaign Evolved launches July 28, 2026, with up to five days of early access starting July 23 for Premium Edition and Collector’s Edition buyers, and it will arrive on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, cloud, and Game Pass while also taking preorders on Xbox, Steam, and PlayStation.

That platform spread matters because it changes who gets to treat this as a day-one event. PlayStation’s official store lists the game for PlayStation 5, with a Standard Edition at $49.99 and a Premium Edition at $69.99, while Steam’s preorder page also sets the standard pre-purchase at $49.99 and repeats the July 23 early-access window. The Collector’s Edition is being sold through Halo Waypoint, which makes the rollout feel unusually open for a series that once defined Xbox identity.

The clearest sign that this is meant to be more than a museum-piece remake is Operation: METEORITE, a three-mission story arc included with every edition. Set a year before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, it follows Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson on a clandestine UNSC mission aboard a Covenant research vessel, adding fresh locations, new enemy variants, and weapons drawn from across the Halo series. Xbox says the mission content was first shown in the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 New Missions Trailer, and the framing is plain: this is not bonus fluff bolted onto the side of the campaign.

Xbox has already described Halo: Campaign Evolved as a complete remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s campaign, built in Unreal Engine 5 with remastered 4K visuals, updated animations, remastered music, and re-recorded voice lines. PlayStation’s store copy says the game supports solo play, two-player split-screen co-op, and up to four-player online co-op with full crossplay and cross-progression, which pushes the package toward campaign-first players who want the old Halo structure with modern conveniences, and newcomers who may be meeting Master Chief for the first time.

That is the tightrope Halo: Campaign Evolved is walking. It is trying to preserve the feel of Combat Evolved while expanding the campaign’s frame just enough to justify coming back now, on more screens, with more ways to play than Halo had when it began.