Halo Studios Corrects PS5 Split-Screen FAQ: No PlayStation Plus Required for Local Co-op

Halo Studios published a community FAQ that said PS5 players needed two active PlayStation Plus subscriptions to use local split-screen co-op in Halo: Campaign Evolved. That was wrong. After a day of player pushback, Halo Studios corrected the record on June 21, 2026, confirming the original post contained an error. Local split-screen on PS5 requires a PlayStation account for each player, but no PlayStation Plus subscription on either account.

The original mistake came from Halo Studios senior community manager John Junyszek in a Halo Waypoint Q&A, where, according to Gamespot, he wrote: "If you're playing split-screen on PlayStation 5, both accounts will need to have PlayStation Plus and be linked to a Microsoft account." PlayStation Plus runs $79.99 per year at its Essential tier. Requiring two subscriptions on top of a $50 game price for couch co-op landed badly, because it would have made a purely local, offline feature contingent on two active online service subscriptions.

PS5 Split-Screen Requirements

The corrected requirements are still not frictionless. As confirmed by Notebookcheck and Game Informer, both players in a PS5 split-screen session need a separate PlayStation Network account on the console, and each PSN account must be individually linked to its own Microsoft account with an Xbox Gamertag. That account linking requirement applies across all platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and Steam players all need a Microsoft account and Xbox Gamertag to play, per Halo Studios' own documentation. The stated reason is cross-platform progression and cross-play compatibility, consistent with how Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite have operated. PlayStation Plus is only required when moving from the couch to online co-op. Xbox Series X/S players face the same Microsoft account pairing for the second local player, but no subscription requirement for local play.

The Messaging Problem

Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on July 28, 2026, as the first mainline Halo title to ship on PlayStation hardware. Getting the account requirement documentation wrong on that debut, and specifically wrong about whether the game's signature couch co-op mode costs extra, is a bad fumble. The correction came after the player response, not before publication. As Game Informer noted, couch co-op in the original Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 required a second controller and nothing else. The setup process for the remake is more involved regardless of the PlayStation Plus question, and the initial FAQ error put a spotlight on that complexity at the worst possible time.