Halo CE players on PS5 can breathe out. Local split-screen co-op won’t require a PlayStation Plus subscription, clearing up days of confusion caused by some messy official wording.
The corrected guidance is simple: if two people want to play split-screen on the same PS5, both need to be signed into PlayStation accounts that are linked to Microsoft accounts. That’s it. No paid subscription needed for couch play.
Earlier communication around the game’s co-op setup was read as saying both local players would need active PS Plus subscriptions to play together offline. That would have been a wild requirement, since PS Plus is normally tied to online multiplayer, not two people sitting on the same sofa.
What you actually need
PlayStation accounts are free. Microsoft accounts are free. PS Plus is the paid one, and it’s the one that isn’t required here. So a household with zero PS Plus subscriptions can still boot up Halo CE and run the campaign in split-screen, as long as both players go through the account setup.
That setup is the only sticking point left. The wording suggests player two may not be able to just hop in as a quick PS5 guest profile, since guest accounts don’t carry a persistent PSN identity or a linked Microsoft account. Whether guest profiles are formally supported hasn’t been spelled out yet.
While PS5 owners get split-screen co-op, PC players don’t. Split-screen isn’t part of the PC version, continuing a long-running pattern for Halo on PC. The Master Chief Collection on PC also shipped without it, much to the annoyance of anyone who wanted to plug a second controller into their gaming rig.
