Xbox's upcoming Halo remake is making waves on the PlayStation Store, as it tops Sony's pre-order charts across Europe. The Xbox Games Showcase may have shown off Persona 6 and Fable, but the biggest news was Xbox's pivot back to exclusive games.
Gears Of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be Xbox console exclusives when they launch, which comes after Microsoft's big push towards becoming a multi-platform publisher, with the likes of Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, Hellblade 2, Grounded, Sea Of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 5 all making their way to PlayStation 5 over recent years.
Some of these have fared better than others on Sony's console, with Forza Horizon 5 being by far the biggest success, but it seems Halo: Campaign Evolved could be another hit when it arrives on July 28, 2026. At time of writing, the upcoming remake is the most pre-ordered title on the PlayStation Store in the UK, ahead of various versions of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. The Halo: Campaign Evolved premium edition, meanwhile, is fourth ahead of Star Wars: Galactic Racer.
It's a similar picture on the PlayStation Store pre-order chart in France and Germany, with Halo leading the pack ahead of Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis on both storefronts. On the Italian store, meanwhile, it's in fifth position behind The Adventures Of Elliot and Rayman Legends Retold.
It's a slightly different story in the US, with the premium edition of Halo ranking seventh behind various versions of Madden NFL 27, EA Sports College Football 27, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and Marvel's Wolverine, but it's still a decent position.
If Halo: Campaign Evolved is successful on PlayStation 5, it could present an awkward decision for Xbox. Matt Booty, Xbox's chief content officer, has already implied that its current exclusive strategy doesn't have any solid rules, so whether Halo Infinite's successor comes to PlayStation 5 might depend on this remake's reception. Although Microsoft has tried to pretend it was always the plan, it seems likely one of the reasons Gears Of War: E-Day was made an exclusive is because Gears Of War: Reloaded on PlayStation 5 didn't seem to sell particularly well.
According to reports, Halo is one of the franchises Xbox wants to accelerate when it comes to making new games, along with The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. The last mainline Halo title was 2021's Halo Infinite. Halo Studios previously teased it was working on multiple Halo games in 2024. One of these, as we know now, is Halo: Campaign Evolved, but it's unclear if the other title is the next mainline game.
