Phil Spencer Just Lowkey Confirmed The Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster Making 2026 A Massive Year For Xbox

What might have been the biggest news of the Xbox summer showcase didn't come in the form of a surprise trailer but rather straight from the mouth of Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. While there was no footage to debut, the executive quietly let slip that a new Forza is coming next year as well as the 'return of a classic' that's been with Xbox from the beginning. It's hard to imagine that's anything other than the previously reported Halo: Combat Evolved remaster.
'As we think about bringing a new generation of players to these iconic franchises I'm excited to share that players will get to celebrate 25 years of Xbox with a new Fable, the next Forza, Gears of War: E-Day, and the return of a classic that's been with us since the beginning,' Spencer said near the end of the livestream.
That tiny, innocuous-sounding snippet was full of news. The Gears of War prequel didn't previously have a release window and the newest Forza hadn't previously been mentioned at all (will it be Forza Horizon 6 or something else?) But the detail most fans will be glomming onto is the hint at the original Halo's return.
That game, previously reported by The Verge's Tom Warren to be a remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved in Unreal Engine 5, will presumably follow in the footsteps of the recent remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,which Microsoft shadow-dropped last month. If that ends up being the case, the Halo remaster will likely be the original game running with overhauled graphics and some tweaked systems, though unlike Oblivion, there is already an HD Master Chief Collection players can use to access Bungie's hit 2001 shooter. We'll have to wait to learn more to see if Combat Evolved gets a more fundamental reworking to make it stand out on modern platforms.
Whatever it ends up being, it's almost a guaranteed thing that a Halo remaster will be coming to PlayStation 5 as well, potentially serving as the perfect starting point to bring the iconic Xbox exclusive to Sony's console for the first time ever.
And while that multiplatform push has left some fans wondering why they bothered buying an Xbox console at all this generation, Spencer's last-minute sound-bite suggests next year will be full of nostalgia for those who have been with the platform for decades. All of the core, previously exclusive franchises will be there, and playable on Microsoft's new Xbox-branded ROG Ally PC gaming handheld to boot.
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