Halo 5 Is Free To Play On Xbox One For A Limited Time This Weekend

For a limited time, all Xbox Live Gold members can play Halo 5: Guardians completely free. Microsoft announced today that from January 11 through January 14, all subscribers can play the entire game, comprising its campaign (solo, or online co-op) and the full multiplayer suite. This includes standard multiplayer and the large-scale Warzone mode.

The free weekend kicks off at 12:01 AM PT on January 11 and ends at 10:59 PM on January 14, and you can download the game from the Xbox One dashboard. The game is currently marked down to just $16 on Xbox Live, and this price will be available for the duration of the free weekend event. Additionally, Halo 5 is in the Xbox Game Pass program, so you can play it--and more than 100 other titles--for $10/month.

One thing to bear in mind is that Halo 5 is an absolutely massive download. In the two-plus years since the game launched in October 2015, Microsoft has released numerous and substantial updates for the game, bringing its total file size to around 100 GB currently.

In other Halo news, the TV show based on the series from producer Steven Spielberg is still on the way. No new games have been announced but we do know that the next Halo FPS will have split-screen support, which is good news after Halo 5 left this out.