The changes at XBOX continue as new CEO Asha Sharma further institutes her vision for XBOX to be more agile and successful in the future. This morning, it was reported that 268 positions were laid off and several studio re-alignments were underway.
Courtesy of Stephen Totilo and Game File, here are the details:
- The 268 positions are part of the 3,200 that were announced in July with the majority coming from Halo Studios. In addition to the cuts, the remainder of Halo Studios will now act as a caretaker/support role and sit under Activision. An unnamed studio within Activision will now lead development on the next Halo title and will publish the game as well.
- In addition to the changes at Halo Studios, several other studios are being realigned.
- Rare (Sea of Thieves) and World’s Edge (Age of Empires) will also sit under Activision
- Obsidian (Grounded, Outer Worlds) will sit under Bethesda
- Microsoft Casual Games (Minesweeper, Solitaire) will sit under King
- Turn 10 (Forza Motorsport) will merge with Playground Games (Forza Horizon, Fable)
- Finally, UK-based Ninja Theory (Hellblade) was previously identified as being sold to an independent buyer but that deal has reportedly fallen through. We have no details at this time on what that means for the studio.
While most of this makes sense logistically, Halo Studios being under Activision both for development and publishing is a major change. Halo is arguably one of XBOX’s most valuable IPs but there’s also no denying that it hasn’t been managed well in the past decade-plus. We’re also unsure what this means for the future of Rare’s work, whether Forza Motorsport will ever see a new entry, and if the recently announced Senua from Ninja Theory will even see release.
We’ll have a lot more to say later this week on Bitcast as always! We hope you join us then.
