Halo: Campaign Evolved early access begins for premium owners
Early access for Halo: Campaign Evolved starts 23 July for Digital Premium Edition pre-orders and Collector’s Edition buyers; the full release arrives 28 July 2026.
Halo: Campaign Evolved opened early access on 23 July at 8:00 AM PDT (4:00 PM BST) for players who pre-ordered the Digital Premium Edition or bought the Collector’s Edition. The game will reach all platforms with a general release on 28 July 2026, giving higher-tier buyers up to five days of early play.
Halo Studios rebuilt the original Halo: Combat Evolved campaign in Unreal Engine 5. The release updates visuals, control schemes and the soundtrack, and includes new voice recordings. The package contains the original ten missions plus a new three-mission prequel arc called Operation: METEORITES, which follows Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson on a covert UNSC operation aboard a Covenant research vessel. METEORITES is included in every edition of the game.
Early access is available to owners of the Digital Premium Edition, priced at $69.99, and to buyers of the physical Collector’s Edition, which was priced at $199.99 and sold out in June. Existing Xbox Game Pass subscribers can buy a Premium Edition Upgrade for $20. The standard edition will be available via Xbox Game Pass from 28 July at no additional cost to subscribers.
The release focuses on the single-player campaign and cooperative play. Competitive multiplayer remains part of Halo Infinite. On console the remake supports two-player local split-screen. For the first time in the series, online co-op supports up to four players with cross-play that includes PlayStation 5 users. The game is the first Halo title to appear on a PlayStation platform.
The PC version lists high system requirements for top settings. NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti-class hardware is expected for stable 4K performance. Developers rebuilt assets and systems to deliver updated lighting, textures and effects while keeping the original campaign structure intact.
The staggered early access and full launch make the remake available across PC, Xbox Series consoles and PlayStation 5. The early-access window began 23 July and the full launch is scheduled for 28 July 2026.
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