Hero image: Halo Infinite key art. Image: Halo Studios / Xbox Game Studios, via Steam
Xbox has eliminated another 268 roles and reorganised its studios. The biggest change: the next Halo will be made by Activision, not Halo Studios.
The news landed in a memo from Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty, sent to staff on Tuesday morning US time, which was the early hours of Wednesday here. The cuts hit Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the management and central teams that sit above Xbox Game Studios.
Booty says the actions taken since July, including the studios Xbox has sold or spun off, put the company roughly three-quarters of the way through the restructuring it announced earlier this year. That plan was for around 3,200 jobs across the financial year.
Who now answers to whom
Activision takes over Rare and World’s Edge, the team behind Age of Empires. It will also develop the next Halo with what Booty calls a new, purpose-built team that is separate from Call of Duty. A small group at Halo Studios stays on to support the Halo games already on sale.
Bethesda takes in Obsidian, which keeps working on Grounded and on the new Fallout project it is making with Bethesda Game Studios.
King, the Candy Crush studio, absorbs Microsoft Casual Games.
Playground and Turn 10 merge into a single studio covering Forza and Fable. The two have shared the Forza series for more than a decade, so on paper this formalises an existing partnership.
What it means for Halo
For the first time since Bungie handed the series over, Halo will be built outside the studio that carries its name. Activision president Rob Kostich said the aim is to make the greatest Halo game ever while staying true to what players loved about it. No platforms, timing or team size were given.
The memo also covered the studios Xbox has let go, including a proposed closure of Ninja Theory. We look at those separately tonight.
Booty says Xbox will hold an all-staff town hall on 6 October.
Source: Matt Booty memo, via Insider Gaming, Variety, The Game Business