Following the announcement that Halo: Campaign Evolved will be coming to PS5 as well as Xbox Series X|S and PC, GameStop has leveraged its position as a "Neutral Entity" to declare the decades-long console wars officially over.
According to a tongue-in-cheek statement posted to X by GameStop, the company attributes the beginning of the "ongoing and increasingly petty conflict known as The Console Wars" to the release of Halo: Combat Evolved as an Xbox-exclusive title in 2001. Now that Microsoft has announced that a remake of that title, Halo: Campaign Evolved, will come to PlayStation 5 in 2026, GameStop has called the official end to the infamous console wars.
"All claims to exclusivity are hereby dissolved. Console loyalists are instructed to cease hostilities, disband militias, and enjoy this new era of gaming," the directive from GameStop reads.
While the Halo: Campaign Evolved release isn't quite as definitive an end to console exclusivity as the GameStop post suggests, it is a major move away from exclusivity for Xbox. While the company has previously released some of its other major exclusive franchises to PlayStation, including Gears of War and Forza Horizon 5, Halo has long been a flagship franchise for Xbox. But Halo will be on PlayStation moving forward.
Xbox exec Matt Booty explained that Xbox is looking to go where the players are, even if that means releasing games on rival consoles. The strategy has been working out for Xbox so far, with its formerly exclusive franchises seeing great sales on the PlayStation.
Source
According to a tongue-in-cheek statement posted to X by GameStop, the company attributes the beginning of the "ongoing and increasingly petty conflict known as The Console Wars" to the release of Halo: Combat Evolved as an Xbox-exclusive title in 2001. Now that Microsoft has announced that a remake of that title, Halo: Campaign Evolved, will come to PlayStation 5 in 2026, GameStop has called the official end to the infamous console wars.
"All claims to exclusivity are hereby dissolved. Console loyalists are instructed to cease hostilities, disband militias, and enjoy this new era of gaming," the directive from GameStop reads.
While the Halo: Campaign Evolved release isn't quite as definitive an end to console exclusivity as the GameStop post suggests, it is a major move away from exclusivity for Xbox. While the company has previously released some of its other major exclusive franchises to PlayStation, including Gears of War and Forza Horizon 5, Halo has long been a flagship franchise for Xbox. But Halo will be on PlayStation moving forward.
Xbox exec Matt Booty explained that Xbox is looking to go where the players are, even if that means releasing games on rival consoles. The strategy has been working out for Xbox so far, with its formerly exclusive franchises seeing great sales on the PlayStation.
Source