Halo Finally Looks Set to Make the Jump to PlayStation This Year

ign.com:

Microsoft is seemingly ready to launch its flagship Xbox video game series Halo on rival platforms for the first time, including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch 2.

Leaker NateTheHate, who this week reported that Nintendo is set to reveal Switch 2 on January 16, also reported in a separate podcast that Microsoft will finally bring Halo to PlayStation in the form of a PlayStation 5 port of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, as well as a release on Switch 2. Windows Central’s Jez Corden subsequently corroborated the report.

Microsoft declined to comment when contacted by IGN.

While Microsoft’s multiplatform video game strategy is well-documented at this stage, Halo was seen as the final frontier. However, perhaps the famous first-person shooter’s flight from Xbox shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Last year, Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer said there were no “red lines” in its first-party lineup when it comes to going multiplatform — and that included Halo. Speaking to Bloomberg, Spencer said every Xbox game is up for grabs when it comes to making the multiplatform jump. “I do not see sort of red lines in our portfolio that say ‘thou must not,’” he said.

Microsoft has so-far used older games released over a year ago for its multiplatform push as opposed to brand new games, but that will soon change with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which comes out on PS5 just a few months after it launched on Xbox and PC.

Indiana Jones is the latest first-party Xbox game to make the jump to a rival console, and follows the multiplatform release of Obsidian’s Pentiment and Grounded, Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush, and Rare’s Sea of Thieves earlier in 2024. In June, Microsoft announced Id Software's upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages will also launch on PS5 this year.

Spencer has said Xbox’s multiplatform push is in part about bringing in more money to Microsoft’s gaming business — with the pressure now on to deliver following its eye-watering $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker