The Xbox restructuring that started in July is still going, and today’s round hits Halo directly. Microsoft confirmed 268 more layoffs and announced that the next mainline Halo game will be made by Activision, not Halo Studios.
Image: 343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios.
What changed today
The announcement came straight from Xbox Wire, in a memo signed by Matt Booty, Xbox’s EVP and Chief Content Officer, sent to the whole team globally. It confirms Activision now takes on three things: the Rare franchise, the World’s Edge studio (Age of Empires) and, starting now, development of the next Halo, led by a new, dedicated team separate from the Call of Duty crew. A small team stays at Halo Studios just to support the games already out.
“We are eliminating 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer. The actions completed since July, inclusive of the studio divestitures, bring us roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring.”
— Matt Booty, Xbox EVP and Chief Content Officer
Who’s changing hands
- Activision gains Rare, World’s Edge, and development of the next Halo
- Bethesda gains Obsidian, which keeps working on Grounded and the new Fallout project made with Bethesda Game Studios
- King takes over Microsoft’s casual games
- Playground Games and Turn 10 merge into one studio focused on Forza and Fable
- Ninja Theory (Hellblade) two sale deals fell through, and closure is now under consultation
- Arkane remains in a divestiture process through the end of the year
Why this is happening
This is a direct continuation of July’s announcement, when Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed 3,200 job cuts over the fiscal year, about 20% of the division’s workforce, along with spinning off four studios and flattening the management structure (from as many as 14 layers down to five). Around 1,600 people were already gone by that point. With today’s 268, Xbox says it’s about three-quarters of the way to the total goal.
- 3/4 of the way there
is where Xbox says it stands toward the goal of cutting 3,200 roles by the end of the fiscal year, per Matt Booty’s memo.
The good news buried in the cuts
Not everything is a cut. Compulsion Games and Double Fine went back to being independent, keeping their games, their back catalog, and funding to keep running. Undead Labs, the studio behind State of Decay, also went independent, and Xbox says State of Decay 3 is still launching day one on Game Pass.
On the other side, Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, never shipped a fully original game under that name before losing the mainline franchise to Activision. According to GamesRadar+, the studio’s only release in that stretch was Halo: Campaign Evolved.
Sources: Xbox Wire: Continuing Our Reset, Engadget, GeekWire, GamesRadar+
