Halo: Campaign Evolved Debuts Its First Collab

Xbox is turning 25 years old later this year, and while there are many games expected to launch in a few months that will help celebrate this milestone, Microsoft has been noticeably lax in the marketing and details of these games.

For instance, Gears of War: E-day was announced nearly two years ago, but fans are only learning more information about the game later this June during an Xbox Direct, a few months before the game's expected launch in late 2026.

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Similarly, Halo: Campaign Evolved, the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, was first announced with a brief early gameplay showcase in October 2025, but little of the game has been officially shown or detailed since, despite rumors of it launching this summer.

Now, Microsoft has unveiled the first official piece of new content in Campaign Evolved in a rather bizarre and concerning way through a Fanta soft drink collaboration.

Halo: Campaign Evolved's New Fanta Skin Explained

To celebrate Xbox's 25th anniversary, Xbox will begin a new promotional event with Fanta starting in April, allowing fans to purchase special-edition Fanta cans and bottles emblazoned with some of Microsoft's most famous gaming icons and franchises.

Each can or bottle's packaging features a QR code, which can be scanned to access digital Xbox-themed Fanta Rewards Chest challenges called Extract the Cargo, Survive the Sweep, and Shatter the Spell.

Once these challenges are completed, players can enter a raffle to potentially win a ROG Xbox Ally, an Xbox Series S, an Xbox controller, or a month's worth of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, but players can also complete the challenges to unlock in-game rewards, including:

• A Fantastical Goblin Waveshredder Mount for World of Warcraft
• A Tactical Orange Calling Card for Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• A Citron Whirl Town Portal for Diablo IV
• A 1966 Toyota Sports 800 Fanta Edition for Forza Horizon 6
• A Master Chief Fantastic Spartan Armor skin for Halo: Campaign Evolved

Halo isn't new to collaborating with soft drink brands for its games, as it famously collaborated with Mountain Dew for Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo Infinite, but this Fanta-themed skin for Halo: Campaign Evolved is bizarre for numerous reasons beyond it being a bit of an odd choice for the game's first official piece of marketing.

Unlike other mainline Halo entries, Campaign Evolved won't feature any PvP multiplayer modes and will instead be a purely PvE, campaign-focused game, though it will feature four-player co-op.

If Campaign Evolved did feature a traditional PvP multiplayer system, this Fanta skin wouldn't be out of place, but with CE being a campaign-only game, it's a bit concerning that Microsoft will be seemingly introducing alternate skins and potentially other microtransaction items in CE.

Never in any mainline Halo game have players ever been able to change Master Chief's appearance in the campaigns, and the inclusion of a bright orange and blue armor coating is completely jarring and immersion-breaking to the Battle of Installation 04.

This Fanta skin may be more or less free, but its existence suggests that Microsoft may be attempting to make more of a profit from CE by including more skins for Master Chief that will likely only be obtainable via microtransactions instead of completing in-game feats, given Halo's recent cosmetic track record in Halo Infinite.

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Released 2026

Developer(s) Halo Studios

Publisher(s) Microsoft Studios

Multiplayer Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op

Cross-Platform Play Yes - all platforms