The original Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved has been made available to play in a web browser.
This is not a port of Bungie’s seminal 2001 first-person shooter, rather the original Xbox game running in your browser. Hot on the heels of decompilation work done elsewhere, AI developer Mitchell Hynes released Halo in a browser, hosting and maintaining the game himself.
Hynes made a point of explaining that this browser release is not Borderlands developer Gearbox’s official and divisive 2003 PC port of Halo: Combat Evolved, no doubt to encourage veteran fans of the original to give it a shot. And his tweets appear to have gathered a great deal of attention. Five hours after releasing the game, it saw nearly 20,000 games, hitting an average of 94 frames per second.
Halo owner Microsoft may well take a dim view of the original Xbox Halo popping up in browsers, of course, despite the fact it’s free to play. Microsoft recently released Halo: Campaign Evolved on PC as well as consoles, and there can be no doubt that the company’s lawyers will see this browser version of the original as competition.
Indeed, some thought Microsoft had already taken action when Hynes’ website was flagged as “Suspected Phishing.” He insisted this was due to an automatic flag from Cloudflare, rather than Microsoft, and the ban was soon lifted.
We’re currently in the middle of an AI video game explosion that has seen various clips of famous games mashed together go viral as people use the likes of Claude to create “mods” much faster than previously possible. Some are using AI to create clones of famous games. Others are using AI to release versions of existing, traditionally made mods — much to their creators’ annoyance.
For video game publishers, the potential impact may be existential. Why buy a new Halo game if AI can spit one out for you in a matter of minutes? This week, the person behind a viral AI-generated Fallout: New York game pulled it offline after receiving a cease and desist from Bethesda, leading fans to celebrate. It will be interesting to see how long Halo in your browser stays online.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has handed the keys to the next mainline Halo game to Call of Duty company Activision, and gutted Halo Studios in the process.
Wesley is IGN’s Managing Editor. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
