Xbox lays off 268 more employees across Halo Studios and other first-party studios; company says: This brings us roughly three-quarters of...
Microsoft is cutting another 268 jobs at Xbox, and the latest round lands hardest on the studio behind its most famous franchise. Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, is losing staff alongside other first-party teams and the Xbox Game Studios management and central functions layer. In the same move, the next mainline Halo game is being handed to Activision, the Call of Duty publisher.
Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty announced the cuts in a memo to employees. They count towards the 3,200 role reductions that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced in July for Microsoft's 2027 financial year, which ends in June 2027. About 1,600 of those jobs went in the first round. "The actions completed since July, inclusive of the studio divestitures, bring us roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring," Booty wrote.
Activision will build the next Halo game with a new teamActivision is setting up a purpose-built Halo team, kept separate from its Call of Duty development. A small group at Halo Studios will stay on to support the community and the games already in players' hands. The shift comes just months after Halo: Campaign Evolved launched.
Activision is also taking charge of World's Edge, the Age of Empires studio, and Rare, the developer of Sea of Thieves. Activision president Rob Kostich said the aim is to "make the greatest Halo game ever."
Xbox is merging Forza studios and moving Obsidian under BethesdaBooty says the goal is to run fewer business units and bring together groups that already work closely. Bethesda now oversees Obsidian, which continues work on Grounded and a new Fallout project made with Bethesda Game Studios. King, the Candy Crush maker, absorbs Microsoft Casual Games, home to Solitaire and Minesweeper.
Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios, partners on Forza for over a decade, will now operate as one studio handling both Forza and Fable.
Ninja Theory faces closure after two failed sale dealsThe plan to offload studios has had mixed results. Compulsion Games and Double Fine went independent in August with their IP, back catalogues and runway funding. Undead Labs has now followed on similar terms and, with a new publisher, will still release State of Decay 3 on Game Pass on day one.
Ninja Theory, the Hellblade developer, was not as lucky. Two separate agreements to sell the studio fell through, so Xbox will begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while exploring other paths. Talks over Arkane's future in France are expected to run until the end of the year.
The reason behind all of this was laid out in Sharma's July memo. Xbox was operating at margins three to 10 times lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses, and in a typical year lost 64 cents for every dollar it invested in studios. Employees will gather at an October 6 town hall, where Booty plans to look ahead to what he calls one of the strongest game lineups in Xbox history. With a quarter of the cuts still to come, that lineup now carries the weight of the reset.
Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty announced the cuts in a memo to employees. They count towards the 3,200 role reductions that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced in July for Microsoft's 2027 financial year, which ends in June 2027. About 1,600 of those jobs went in the first round. "The actions completed since July, inclusive of the studio divestitures, bring us roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring," Booty wrote.
Activision will build the next Halo game with a new teamActivision is setting up a purpose-built Halo team, kept separate from its Call of Duty development. A small group at Halo Studios will stay on to support the community and the games already in players' hands. The shift comes just months after Halo: Campaign Evolved launched.
Activision is also taking charge of World's Edge, the Age of Empires studio, and Rare, the developer of Sea of Thieves. Activision president Rob Kostich said the aim is to "make the greatest Halo game ever."
Xbox is merging Forza studios and moving Obsidian under BethesdaBooty says the goal is to run fewer business units and bring together groups that already work closely. Bethesda now oversees Obsidian, which continues work on Grounded and a new Fallout project made with Bethesda Game Studios. King, the Candy Crush maker, absorbs Microsoft Casual Games, home to Solitaire and Minesweeper.
Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios, partners on Forza for over a decade, will now operate as one studio handling both Forza and Fable.
Ninja Theory faces closure after two failed sale dealsThe plan to offload studios has had mixed results. Compulsion Games and Double Fine went independent in August with their IP, back catalogues and runway funding. Undead Labs has now followed on similar terms and, with a new publisher, will still release State of Decay 3 on Game Pass on day one.
Ninja Theory, the Hellblade developer, was not as lucky. Two separate agreements to sell the studio fell through, so Xbox will begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while exploring other paths. Talks over Arkane's future in France are expected to run until the end of the year.
The reason behind all of this was laid out in Sharma's July memo. Xbox was operating at margins three to 10 times lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses, and in a typical year lost 64 cents for every dollar it invested in studios. Employees will gather at an October 6 town hall, where Booty plans to look ahead to what he calls one of the strongest game lineups in Xbox history. With a quarter of the cuts still to come, that lineup now carries the weight of the reset.
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