Xbox has confirmed 268 redundancies across Halo Studios, other first-party teams and the Xbox Game Studios management and central-functions layer, while reorganising several studios under different parts of its games business.
- Division chief content officer Matt Booty shared the update in a statement to Xbox employees, republished by Xbox Wire.
- Halo is moving to Activision, which will build the next game with a new purpose-built team; a smaller Halo Studios group will continue supporting existing products.
- Rare and World's Edge are also moving under Activision, while Obsidian is moving to Bethesda. Turn 10 will be folded into Playground Games.
- Undead Labs is becoming independent, with State of Decay 3 continuing under a new publisher and remaining a day-one Game Pass release.
- The Game Business reported the restructuring; for workers, the immediate questions are which teams own current projects, where roles are retained and how transitions affect hiring.
Booty said Xbox Game Studios was roughly three-quarters of the way through its previously announced restructuring. The changes underline how large publishers are consolidating teams and production responsibilities while reducing headcount.
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