Halo On PlayStation Is Something Xbox Has Considered For A Long Time

As a business, Microsoft regularly considers what it can do to make the most possible money and improve the size, profile, and reputation of its brand, and one idea the company contemplated was bringing Halo to PlayStation.

Former Xbox executive Peter Moore told IGN that Microsoft, years ago, had “conversations about Halo on PlayStation,” adding that Microsoft was “constantly” considering its options. Microsoft even hired the consultancy company McKinsey to create a “wargames” scenario where Microsoft’s executives spent a couple days on a retreat trying to better understand the competition.

“I played the role of [PlayStation founder Ken Kutaragi], and this was fascinating to me,” he said. “It scared us because you’re stunned to figure out, well wait, I hadn’t thought of that. You mean they might do that to us or this might happen? And so you’re constantly thinking about every scenario, as ridiculous or disruptive or radical as it sounds. You have to, absolutely have to.”

For Halo specifically, Moore said Microsoft might be running the numbers now and wondering if it makes sense financially to bring a franchise like Halo to PlayStation. Beyond the potential money to be made, there are reputation and brand considerations at play, Moore said.

“If Microsoft says, wait, we’re doing $250 million on our own platforms, but if we then took Halo as, let’s call it a third-party, we could do a billion… You got to think long and hard about that, right?” he said. “I mean, you just got to go, yeah, should it be kept? It’s a piece of intellectual property. It’s bigger than just a game. And how do you leverage that? Those are the conversations that always happen with, how do you leverage it in everything that we would do?”

He added: “It’s had its ups and downs, but look, Xbox wouldn’t be what Xbox is without Halo. But yeah, I’m sure those conversations are happening. Whether they come to fruition, who knows? But they’re definitely happening, I’m sure.”

Moore went on to say the “hardcore” gaming community is diminishing in size, so Microsoft might want to consider the next generation of gamers and what they might want.

“Those hardcore are getting smaller in size and older in age. You’ve got to cater to the generations that are coming through, because they’re going to drive the business over the next 10, 20 years,” he said.

For now at least, Halo is remaining a game series you can only play on Xbox consoles and PC (as well as mobile devices via the cloud).

In February, Microsoft announced plans to bring Pentiment, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, and Hi-Fi Rush to PlayStation and Nintendo devices. Moore said he believes this amounts to Microsoft “dipping the toes in the water to see how all of this works.”

Moore worked at Xbox during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era before spending a decade at EA. He then shifted gears and became Liverpool Football Club’s CEO from 2017-2020, before leaving to become an executive at Unity. He left in 2023 and is now an owner of the Santa Barbara Sky USL League One team, which begins competition in 2025.