Halo: Campaign Evolved Will Require a PS Plus Account for All Split-Screen Players

An odd requirement for local co-op on the PS5 version of next month's Halo: Combat Evolved remake has reared its head.

In a recent Q&A on the Halo Waypoint blog, Halo Studios has raised some eyebrows by announcing that all platforms will require a Microsoft Account to play, and that additionally, players on the PlayStation 5 will require each player to have a PlayStation Plus subscription and Microsoft-linked account in order to play locally. Players on Xbox will only require a Game Pass subscription for online co-op.

Over on the PC, Steam players will also require a Microsoft account to play, and while it stands to reason that PC players on PC Game Pass or the Microsoft Store already have an account, this raises an interesting question about whether the game will be polling for online connections when users try and get their Spartan on.

The reaction to the news online has been generally negative. Tweets and commentary have called out why this game falls outside of the typical norm for couch co-op, and have questioned why this move is so aggressively anti-consumerist. It doesn't help that this news comes at a time when Xbox is in the spotlight for aggressive restructuring, with various studios looking to be shuttered by Microsoft.

Other interesting tidbits that came out of the Q&A include a rejection of any further support for the game, with Firefight, post-release Skulls, and other additional content being ruled out, as well as confirming no demo will be coming out. Legendary All Skulls On (LASO) will, despite its name, not require all Skulls on but rather a selection of them (a stance which the Master Chief Collection also took). Hitmarkers will be on by default but able to be toggled off by players, too.

There'll be no Photo Mode or Theater Mode at launch; nor are the features currently planned, but Halo Studios said players can use the Blind and Acrophobia Skulls together to hide the UI and fly around the world, which should allow for a more "DIY" screenshot experience.

The studio also talked about the three new prequel missions releasing alongside the Unreal Engine 5-powered remake, indicating that players can opt to play them straight away if they want, but that the intended experience -- particularly for new players -- is to play them after the main game, as the missions assume players have gone through the game's tutorial and onboarding as part of the main campaign. Presumably, the missions might assume that players have good command of the game before jumping into them.

The Q&A also broke down how co-op scales with your squad. More players in a session will mean more enemies, and a greater chance of enemies being bumped up in rank. Additionally, AI will reportedly get smarter as the squad size increases, with enemies showing more accurate targeting and dodging grenades more readily. Difficulty Modifiers are also being added to co-op sessions: individual sliders for damage taken, shield recharge rate, damage dealt, melee damage, and ammo, which let each player dial in their own challenge level. The catch, however: turn one on for anyone in your squad, and certain Achievements become unearnable for the entirety of the session.

Finally, the post touched on complaints about the print run of the Collector's Edition, which is now out of stock. The studio mentioned that they have not seen widespread scalping of the edition, but where it was identified those units were returned to stock, which have naturally all been sold out since. Players after the Mjolnir armour-clad Master Chief statue should keep an eye out for any returns that make their way back to the store between now and launch, but don't expect much more in the way of another print run.

It's certainly not a great look to start off your ramp-up to launch with a lot of dismissals of features and quality-of-life functionality and strange platform-specific restrictions to pretty standard gameplay features. We'll see how the remake turns out when it launches late July.