Halo: Campaign Evolved PS5 Local Couch Co-Op Unexpectedly Requires Both Players To Have Active PlayStation Plus
You sit down with your kid and unwrap the plastic sheen from the Halo: Campaign Evolved box as a nice little weekend surprise — some quality bonding time as you slug through the Flood. Both controllers are plugged in, the game is ready to go, and... only one of you has PS Plus, leaving you fat out of luck. Maybe it's not your kid; maybe it's your sibling, your friend, or your partner. Whoever you're sitting on that couch with, for some bizarre reason, both accounts need PS Plus to play together, even for local split-screen.
It sounds counterintuitive. Sliding the disc in and jumping into couch co-op out of the box is Halo tradition. There aren't usually any speed bumps, aside from maybe one controller not actually being plugged in and you stupidly falling for it and thinking you're the top screen, which definitely didn't happen when I was over at a friend's house. Yet that's exactly what the team announced in a new Halo Waypoint blog post last night.
"If you're playing split-screen on PlayStation 5, both accounts will need to have PlayStation Plus and be linked to a Microsoft account," the post reads. "Having these active PlayStation Plus subscriptions will also provide access to online co-op play."
That's yet another barrier to entry: two PlayStation Plus subscriptions, and two linked Microsoft accounts, when local co-op is typically an offline affair, on account of being, y'know, local. Still, Microsoft isn't budging, and recommends that you have an Xbox account created beforehand "to help you save time once you put the disc in the tray."
Who's To Blame — PlayStation Or Xbox?
XboxThe news has been slammed as "anti-consumer" and needlessly "complicated," but it's unclear who exactly is responsible — PlayStation or Xbox — and everyone has their plasma rifles pointed in all directions.
Xbox players don't need a second Game Pass subscription to play local split-screen, only a unique Microsoft account, which calls into question why it would be any different for PlayStation users. In all likelihood, it's because both players must link to Xbox's services, meaning that the second player cannot simply be a 'guest.' Sony's architecture treats any external network connection as an "online feature," which would require PS Plus, even when playing offline. So, it would appear that both parties are somewhat to blame, thanks to mandatory Microsoft accounts from Xbox and the architecture of PlayStation's online systems. Though this is entirely speculative, and we have reached out for further clarification.
Call of Duty suffered from this exact problem in the past. A quick scan online, and you'll see countless forum posts from people asking if they really need to buy a second round of PS Plus just to play with their kids. Expect an exhausting resurgence of those exact threads when Campaign Evolved launches next month.
Halo: Campaign Evolved Like Follow Followed FPS Science Fiction Shooter Multiplayer Systems Released July 28, 2026 Developer(s) Halo Studios Publisher(s) Microsoft Studios Multiplayer Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op Cross-Platform Play Yes - all platforms 5 Images CloseWHERE TO PLAY
DIGITAL
