Just as Halo Studios finally releases its iron grip on the Halo franchise, it has to come with a massive cost. Activision is now responsible for Master Chief’s next space adventure, but several familiar, beloved gaming names under XBOX’s buyout will no longer exist. Worse, 268 people are losing their jobs in yet another round of this so-called corporate ‘reset.’
In a message sent to XBOX employees, Chief Content Officer Matt Booty announced that Activision will develop the next Halo, led by a ‘new, purpose-built team’ separate from Call of Duty. “A small team at Halo Studios will continue supporting the Halo community and games in-market,” he added. It’ll also expand its ‘remit’ to include Age of Empires developer World’s Edge and Rare.
The rest of Microsoft-bought studios aren’t escaping unscathed, either. Bethesda is swallowing Obsidian, while it continues to work on Grounded and the new Fallout game. Meanwhile, Playground Games and Turn 10 will be merged into a single studio responsible for Forza and Fable.
This comes at a particularly awkward time for XBOX. PlayStation has been under fire over its decision to stop disc production and drop Hideo Kojima’s Physint. Meanwhile, XBOX appeared to be slowly rebuilding some goodwill, picking up Kojima’s project and announcing its disc-to-digital program. But just two months after July’s bloodbath, Microsoft’s cuts are continuing again.
Back then, Microsoft announced it was cutting around 4,800 jobs — roughly 2.1% of its global workforce — throughout Fiscal Year 2027. XBOX took the nastiest hit, with around two-thirds of those cuts coming from its gaming division. CEO Asha Sharma called it the company’s ‘most significant restructure.’
Just when XBOX seemed to have an easy chance to win some people back, we’re right back here again. It doesn’t help that rumors of an ad-supported Game Pass tier are floating around, either. Funny that for years I’ve been begging for Microsoft to let other studios have a crack at Halo and pump out more spin-offs. I guess I should’ve been more specific before that monkey’s paw curled.
