Overview
- Xbox, which announced the changes Tuesday, eliminated 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first‑party teams, and the Xbox Game Studios management and central functions layer.
- Activision will build a new, purpose‑built team to develop the next mainline Halo game while a small Halo Studios group remains to support existing Halo titles, and Activision will also take oversight of Rare and World’s Edge.
- Several studio reassignments formalize publishing umbrellas: Obsidian will report to Bethesda, Playground and Turn 10 will merge to oversee Forza and Fable, and Microsoft Casual Games will move under King.
- Compulsion, Double Fine, and Undead Labs were spun out or placed with new publishers with State of Decay 3 still planned for day‑one release on Game Pass, while two failed divestiture talks left Ninja Theory facing proposed closure and Arkane under consultation.
- Xbox says the reset targets roughly 3,200 roles and is about three‑quarters complete, the company has scheduled an all‑hands town hall for October 6, and the changes signal further consolidation and uncertainty for studio staff and future projects.