Halo on PlayStation 5 has one major downside for Xbox fans

Rumours have it that Halo is coming to PlayStation one day, whether it be the current games like Halo: The Master Chief Collection/Halo: Infinite, or the future titles following 343 Industries rebrand.

Personally, I’m all for the IP making the leap to PlayStation; in my mind the series deserves to be experienced by as many people as possible. That being said, I can’t shake the feeling of anguish when I look at where Xbox and Halo used to be, and where it is now. How the mighty have fallen.

If you’ve taken a break from Halo for a while I’d recommend jumping back into Halo: Infinite, there’s some good stuff in there now following its rocky launch

Halo was originally intended to be a game for Macs. With the project name Blam! It was a sci-fi third-person shooter about a big green dude fighting aliens. Of course the finished product, Halo: Combat Evolved, was launched on Xbox and PC, and was a sci-fi first-person shooter about a big green dude fighting aliens.

It was a huge success, and the cultural impact is arguably the reason Xbox is the titan of gaming it is today. While Halo 2 was a little rougher due to a challenging development cycle, it was even more successful than the first, and the grand-finale Halo 3 eclipsed both of the previous games combined in sales.

Halo was the reason you’d buy an Xbox console, and I know this first-hand because I’ve been an Xbox fan my entire life purely because I was enamoured by Master Chief and his battle to save humanity.

Fast forward to present day and Halo is hardly the Xbox mascot it once was. Halo: Infinite was the closest we got to reliving the glory days, but the build up to launch was just abysmal with disappointment after disappointment.

No wonder the franchise is undergoing a rebrand, and presumably a full-on reboot as the new screenshots and teaser suggest the next Halo game will be a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved rather than a continuation of the story up to now.

While the rebrand does inspire hope for the future, it’s also telling of the current state of Xbox, especially if the company is indeed making Halo available on PlayStation 5 consoles.

Now again I’m all for Halo on PlayStation. I want as many people as possible to experience these games, and if the older titles become available it only makes sense to have future titles as day one launches on Sony’s platform as well. However as such a huge fan of the series and being there at its peak, it still makes me sad to see just how far it’s fallen, and the desperate plays Xbox is having to make to bring it back.

Xbox Game Studios

Years ago the thought of playing Halo on a PlayStation console would be inconceivable, laughable even, this is the Xbox IP it’d have no place on a Sony console. But after so many missteps, it’s clear the series cannot thrive on Xbox and PC exclusively anymore. It’s not just Halo’s reputation either, Xbox in general has been struggling to keep players on board. The PlayStation is leagues ahead of the Xbox Series X/S, especially since Microsoft’s last console was the lacklustre Xbox One.

It’s not all doom and gloom as Xbox Game Pass continues to be a win for the company, and there are still plenty of IPs to play with especially following the acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. The problem is time, there just isn’t enough of it to make such a quick and decisive difference. I’m sure Xbox would love to throw every Call of Duty game on Xbox Game Pass, or greenlight a brand-new Spyro and Crash Bandicoot game to compete with PlayStation’s Astro Bot, but these projects take time and they’re the greatest console sellers.

Rebranding Halo though is a smart decision, as is making it accessible on more platforms. If done correctly it’ll hopefully revive the brand, as well as be a huge win for Xbox Game Studios when it’s in dire need of one.

Here’s hoping that everything Xbox has in mind goes to plan, especially if you’re a Halo fan. It’s just a shame that such drastic action has had to be taken to restore the IP, and Xbox’ reputation to its former glory. Xbox has always marketed itself as putting the players first, which this move is indicative of, though some of its recent decisions could be perceived as pure desperation rather than a passion for gamers’ enjoyment.