Halo: Campaign Evolved goes gold ahead of July 28 PS5, Xbox, and PC launch

Halo Studios confirmed on Monday that Halo: Campaign Evolved has gone gold, meaning the 1.0 build is locked and the team can now focus on any day-one patch work. The remake launches July 28 on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC — marking Master Chief's first-ever appearance on a PlayStation console.

Players who pre-order the Premium Edition can jump in five days early, starting July 23. The Premium Edition costs $69.99, and anyone already holding a standard pre-order can upgrade for an additional $20. Beyond early access, the premium tier bundles in armor skins and other digital extras. The remake is built in Unreal Engine — a first for the Halo series — and while it drops the original's multiplayer, it adds sprinting, vehicle boarding, the energy sword, four-player online co-op, two-player couch co-op, and a brand-new story expansion called Operation: Meteorite, which adds three new missions.

Halo: Combat Evolved originally launched in 2001 as an Xbox launch title and became the defining game of that console generation. It was remastered as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in 2011 and has been part of The Master Chief Collection ever since. Campaign Evolved is a full top-down remake rather than a remaster, and it arrives as Xbox doubles down on its biggest franchises following a major restructuring that included 3,200 job cuts and the closure of four studios. It's also the first Xbox first-party release since Forza Horizon 6 this past May.

With gold status confirmed and the early access window just over a week away, the release timeline looks solid. Halo Studios has signaled this is only the beginning of a broader Halo push, so Campaign Evolved is likely the first of several major entries in the pipeline.