The original Xbox build of Halo: Combat Evolved is now running in a web browser, no installation required. AI developer Mitchell Hynes dropped the project after decompilation work laid the groundwork, and within five hours of going live, the browser version had already clocked nearly 20,000 games at an average of 94 frames per second.
Here's the thing: this is not a port. It is the actual original Xbox game running in your browser, which makes it a very different beast from what most players have encountered in the years since. Hynes was careful to point out that this is also not the Gearbox-developed 2003 PC port, which has a complicated reputation among longtime fans of the shooter games genre. That distinction matters. The Gearbox port introduced a handful of changes that veterans never fully forgave, and Hynes clearly wanted those same veterans to know this version is the real thing.
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What Hynes actually built
The browser release supports splitscreen co-op and multiplayer for up to 128 players, which is a significant jump beyond what the original hardware ever handled. The decompilation work that preceded this release made it possible to run the Xbox executable in a web environment, rather than rebuilding the game from scratch. That technical distinction is worth keeping in mind: this is preservation work, not a remake.
Shortly after launch, Hynes' website was flagged as "Suspected Phishing" by Cloudflare, which briefly made the project inaccessible. Hynes confirmed the flag was an automatic Cloudflare action and not a takedown initiated by Microsoft. The ban was lifted, and the game came back online.
The bigger picture around AI and game preservation
This release lands in the middle of a broader wave of AI-assisted game projects going viral. Developers are using tools like Claude to build game clones, mash together footage, and accelerate mod creation at a pace that would have been unthinkable two years ago. Some of that work has already run into legal walls. A viral AI-generated Fallout: New York project was pulled offline after Bethesda issued a cease and desist, which gives a pretty clear signal of where publishers stand.
For Microsoft, the timing is awkward. The company recently handed development of the next mainline Halo game to Activision and significantly reduced the headcount at Halo Studios. Having the 2001 original pop up in browsers for free, drawing tens of thousands of plays almost immediately, is not the kind of competition any publisher wants while trying to build momentum around a new release.
What most players will want to know is simple: how long does this stay up? The Fallout: New York precedent suggests publishers are watching these projects closely. The 20,000-game figure in the first five hours shows there is clear appetite for the original Xbox experience, and that kind of visibility tends to attract exactly the kind of attention that gets projects shut down.
If you want to check out the modern version of the franchise in the meantime, find out whether Halo: Campaign Evolved is on Xbox Game Pass before spending anything.
