Gabriel Stanford-ReisingerThis could either be a massive problem in the long-run or a huge 4D chess play here as Halo: Campaign Evolved plays best on PS5. I know it’s weird to hear that an XBOX IP plays better on competing hardware, but that’s just the way it is.
Digital Foundry shared their “big console face-off” where DF found that cutscenes are smoother on PlayStation than Xbox Series. The real big difference, though, is when you take a glance at the PS5 Pro, which shouldn’t shock anyone that this ends up giving PlayStation an edge. The Pro is a mid-gen refresh, so of course, it’s more powerful than the Series line, which has yet — and probably won’t — do a mid-gen refresh.
The biggest benefit that PlayStation has over Xbox Series is essentially turning Performance mode into Quality mode complete with 60 FPS. To be clear, DF isn’t saying that it runs poorly on the Series line, but the best console experience is ironically on the competing platform.
The real question, though, is the future of Halo; it’s well-established that XBOX studio games will begin to be console exclusives again. Now, putting on my theory cap here, I kinda think this better performance on PlayStation could’ve been a bid to try and entice PlayStation owners to at least consider purchasing an Xbox, as if they liked Halo so much and this was their first experience, they might be able to be swayed the other direction. Again, that’s nothing more than a thought, but it’s not super out of the realm of possibility.