Halo makes its PS5 debut this month but not how you would expect

admin 1 day ago New York State Comments Off on Halo makes its PS5 debut this month but not how you would expect 0 Views

Master Chief from Halo, holding a weapon in a mountainous area, in an Unreal Engine 5 demo. — Yes, there was the Master Chief skin in Fortnite, but does that really count? (Xbox Game Studios)

A very blatant teaser heralds Halo coming to PS5 via a crossover, but a proper game is rumoured to be launching soon too.

Years ago, if you had suggested Halo, the former killer app of the Xbox brand, would come to PlayStation consoles, you’d be met with scorn and mockery for your unrealistic expectations.

Now though, that’s merely a case of when and not if. Microsoft has already ported several big Xbox titles to the PlayStation 5, as part of its multiplatform strategy, with even Gears Of War set to join them this month.

While Halo’s not formally confirmed, Microsoft has never ruled it out and now a very blatant teaser has all confirmed the franchise’s PlayStation debut… albeit in a different game entirely.

No, Microsoft hasn’t abruptly announced that rumoured remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved. Instead, it looks like a Halo crossover will be added to Helldivers 2 once the game launches on Xbox on August 26.

Although it’s not an internally developed title, Helldivers 2 was published by Sony when it launched last year, which is why it’s only ever been available on PlayStation 5 and PC.

This past July, Sony and developer Arrowhead Game Studios announced an Xbox port, one handled by Nixxes (a Sony owned studio responsible for multiple PC ports of PlayStation 5 games) and featuring cross-play, so PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC players can all play together.

Expert, exclusive gaming analysis

Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.

A new trailer for the Xbox launch dropped earlier today and towards the end, a familiar tune Halo fans will recognise plays over footage of a hellpod landing in a city.

The music comes from 2009’s Halo 3: ODST, so Master Chief himself may not be making a cameo (since he wasn’t in Halo 3: ODST), but likely the Spartan armour or weapons from that game will be included with a new Helldivers 2 battle pass.

And in case you think any such Halo content will be exclusive to the Xbox version, the Halo tease is also included in the upload for the official PlayStation YouTube account as well.

Given the timing, a more formal confirmation will likely take place during Gamescom next week. Perhaps alongside PlayStation 5 ports of Halo games, if only for the sake of synergy.

It’s recently been suggested that some kind of Halo PlayStation 5 launch is happening very soon. According to Halo dataminer grunt.api, as reported by insider Rebs Gaming, they claim to have found evidence of two new Halo games; one of which has PlayStation 5 compatibility.

This game is apparently already linked to PlayFab, a Microsoft owned platform used for cross-platform play, which could point to it being a rumoured multiplayer Halo game that’s said to be in the works at Certain Affinity.

Rebs Gaming theorises that any such Halo announcement will probably be saved for the Halo World Championships taking place in October, where Halo Studios itself has promised to share the ‘official scoop’ of the future of the series.