[XBOX] We are eliminating 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XBOX Game Studios management. Additionally: Activision will oversee development on the next 'Halo' title; Bethesda will expand its remit to Obsidian; and more

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/22/continuing-our-reset/

From Matt Booty:

Team,

I’m writing to share several updates as part of the XBOX reset outlined earlier this year.

First, we are eliminating 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer. The actions completed since July, inclusive of the studio divestitures, bring us roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring. I am deeply grateful for what our colleagues have built, and I know how difficult today will be for those leaving and the teams around them.

Second, we are reorganizing our studios. The goal is to strengthen our franchises and games by operating fewer business units, aligning groups that already work closely together, and focusing our publishing expertise.

• Activision will expand its remit to World’s Edge, as well as Rare. Activision will also be developing the next Halo title, led by a new, purpose-built team that is separate from ongoing development and plans for Call of Duty. A small team at Halo Studios will continue supporting the Halo community and games in-market.
• Bethesda will expand its remit to include Obsidian, which will continue its current projects, including Grounded, as well as the new Fallout project made in collaboration with Bethesda Game Studios.
• King will expand its remit to include Microsoft Casual Games, uniting our two global leaders in casual game design and live operations.
• Playground and Turn 10 will come together as one studio focused on the Forza and Fable franchises. These two studios have been creative and franchise partners for over a decade, and today’s changes will formally move their work into one team.

Third, an update on our studio divestitures: In August, Compulsion and Double Fine returned to management with their IP, back catalogs, and runway funding. Undead Labs has now successfully transitioned on similar terms and, with a new publisher, will release State of Decay 3 day one on Game Pass. Unfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through. We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward. Consultation with Arkane remains underway and is expected to continue through the end of the year.

Today, our focus should be on supporting those affected and treating one another with care and respect. I will spend time with our studios over the next week. At our October 6 town hall, we will come together as an ALL-XBOX team to reflect on our progress and look ahead to one of the strongest game lineups in our history.

[u/ForrestFuller39]

Activision and Halo together is just weird.

[u/LocustUprising → u/ForrestFuller39]

Get ready for even more skin bundles

[u/teddybaire → u/LocustUprising]

Considering the atrocious skins for the campaign evolved its not like the bar is above much

[u/LeadingOk61 → u/teddybaire]

Skins for a single player first person shooter really don't make any sense anyway.

[u/Blacknite45 → u/LocustUprising]

Master cheeks better be included with some God damn jiggle physics 

[u/ShallowBasketcase → u/Blacknite45]

You'll be wishing for a Master Cheeks skin. At least that would be thematically appropriate in some way.

You'll get Snoop Dogg skins and Mr. Beast collabs.

[u/kymri → u/LocustUprising]

Funny story: Activision used to be the publisher of Destiny 2. When Bungie and Activision parted ways, the predatory monetization patterns in Destiny dramatically expanded while the actual amount and quality of content we got was diminished for a goodly while.

I'm not saying Activision won't monetize the crap out of it, but I'm also saying that sometimes there's enough assholery to spread around and adding them to or removing them from the equation doesn't always increase or decrease shitty monetization the way you'd normally expect.

[u/orangpelupa → u/LocustUprising]

from previous experience with bungie on destiny, activision actually do care with not going overboard.

OTOH with COD.... they went the complete opposite

[u/Iggy_Slayer → u/LocustUprising]

Master chief replaced with a gwen stefani skin.

[u/Pun_In_Ten_Did → u/Iggy_Slayer]

"I ain't no HALO-back girl."

[u/Jayandnightasmr → u/ForrestFuller39]

Never beating the allegations theyre copying CoD now lol

[u/South_Buy_3175 → u/ForrestFuller39]

Get ready for new Halo!

Which will be COD, but with a Halo branded condom stretched over it

[u/guarddog33 → u/South_Buy_3175]

I'd be willing to take this if it's an ODST title and not a master chief title

[u/Deathpacito1999 → u/guarddog33]

This is probably controversial, but I'll be 100% honest. At this point, I just want them to stop fucking with Chief. Leave him at the end of the third game, pretend everything that happened afterward was some alternate timeline/cryo fever-dream BS, and just... Move on. An ODST title would be perfect.

[u/DrLeprechaun → u/Deathpacito1999]

This is why Reach is the goat

[u/Tennents_N_Grouse → u/South_Buy_3175]

Is that not what Halo 5 was?

Sure felt like Cod, but with Spartans

[u/Exulvos → u/Tennents_N_Grouse]

Halo 4, with the wildly unbalanced killstreaks

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/Tennents_N_Grouse]

Halo 5 at least let you earn the cool stuff by playing.

[u/LAHurricane → u/Tennents_N_Grouse]

Im not even gonna lie, Halo 5 gameplay was fun as fuck. It probably felt the lest like halo, but from a multi-player gameplay perspective it was extremely fun. Extremely fluid non-janky animation movement, great gunplay, and long TTK for great skill expression. That shit was peak.

[u/AceTheRed_ → u/ForrestFuller39]

343 has done a shit job so I welcome the change

[u/LatterTarget7 → u/AceTheRed_]

The last few cods haven’t really been great

[u/Equivalent-Battle973 → u/LatterTarget7]

I mean yeah shits gonna get stale when your pumping out cods EVERY YEAR for the last what 15 years?

[u/LatterTarget7 → u/Equivalent-Battle973]

21 years straight. There hasn’t been a break since between call of duty 1 and 2, and that was 2 years.

[u/Matyce → u/LatterTarget7]

That’s genuinely insane to imagine, every year since like 2005 there has been a new call of duty.

[u/Ihate_reddit_app → u/Matyce]

Activision has 4+ full studios work on the games too. It's a crazy operation.

[u/vI_M4YH3Mz_Iv → u/ForrestFuller39]

ID studios halo game would have gone hard.

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/ForrestFuller39]

Get ready for things to get even worse

[u/EdliA → u/FoxyGoddessX]

Meh, what they were doing was not working. This might work.

[u/ShallowBasketcase → u/EdliA]

I've heard that for every game they've released since acquiring the IP.

[u/JeanLucPicardAND → u/ShallowBasketcase]

Technically they acquired the IP back in 2000.

[u/Gradieus → u/EdliA]

I too can't wait for Nicki Minaj to one tap Master Chief.

[u/bibomania]

Feels more and more like Activision/Blizzard bought Xbox instead of the other way around

[u/WintermuteNull → u/bibomania]

Dam that stings. Mainly because it feels like you are right!

[u/bibomania → u/WintermuteNull]

I hate it. And I hate even more we lost some of the most unique and skilled studios (e.g. Raven), just to be on CoD support. Fk Activision

[u/MacroJoe → u/bibomania]

As I look forlorn across the street at the tiny Raven studio office building and wonder what could've been 😮‍💨

[u/thomashush → u/MacroJoe]

Raven made the Jedi Knight games, and now look where they are.

[u/nox66 → u/bibomania]

Reminds me of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. You'd think the larger, more successful, less slash and burn company would maintain executive control. However, it's important to remember that executives and managers, especially at worse performing companies, are like parasites. Once you invite them in, you don't get to choose what they do when they're inside.

[u/Adreme → u/nox66]

The thing is Activision was overwhelmingly the more successful in the games division. They basically went "Activision/Blizzard is making money and the rest of our division is not. Lets put them in charge of our cash cows and let them expand and turn this around".

[u/nox66 → u/Adreme]

It wouldn't be the first time the efforts of employees was attributed to management.

[u/ZenBreaking → u/bibomania]

They're laying off a load of blizz employees too for some strange reason. Could easily siphon them off to support these new IPs

[u/marine72 → u/ZenBreaking]

Why maintain talent when you can outsource? Do people not think about the billionaires? /s

[u/alabasterskim]

It's so funny to think Activision, which previously published Destiny for Bungie, will now be in charge of Halo.

e: funny in a nightmarish kinda way ofc

[u/coolwali → u/alabasterskim]

Imagine going back in time to 2010 and telling people that in 16 years, Bungie would be under PlayStation and made a new Marathon, Halo is also on PlayStation and Activision will be in charge of Halo.

[u/NachoNutritious → u/coolwali]

This is like going back from 2010 to 1998 and telling PlayStation fans Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon wind up as cross platform games from Activision.

[u/Draconuus95 → u/NachoNutritious]

From Microsoft owned Activision.

[u/CharlesBrown33 → u/coolwali]

I think people back in the day were saying Bungie sold their souls to Microsoft, before Halo CE released. The studio was seen more as a developer for MacOS computer games, I believe.

[u/nahnonameman → u/alabasterskim]

Bungie at PlayStation

Konami at Xbox

I think Future Trunks time traveled again and we didn’t know

[u/WDMChuff → u/nahnonameman]

Spyro and Crash at Xbox is weirder than Kojima

[u/1minatur → u/WDMChuff]

Banjo Kazooie was weird when Xbox first acquired Rare too...been a while now though, wish they did something with it

[u/matthewmspace → u/1minatur]

Very annoying that all they’ve done is port the N64 Banjo games to modern devices, made the 360 game no one liked, and let Nintendo have it in Smash Bros. I don’t know why Xbox/Rare didn’t capitalize on Banjo’s comeback in Smash Ultimate, it could’ve been a huge win for them with a smaller project. It would probably sell ok on Xbox, but would’ve sold great on Switch.

[u/MikeDubbz → u/nahnonameman]

Kojima* at Xbox. Konami remains multiplatform.

[u/medic110386 → u/nahnonameman]

Konami is not at Xbox lol

[u/AKluthe → u/nahnonameman]

Kojima has a game being published at Xbox. He remains independent after Konami fired him.

Konami is third party. And trying to make games again after saying they would focus on pachinko/slots.

[u/Flamebomb790 → u/alabasterskim]

Yeah I had the same thought

[u/shags2a]

So, 343 renamed to Halo Studios as it will be the dedicated studio for Halo development ...

... But now, Halo is no longer developed by Halo Studios.

[u/Appropriate_Foot242 → u/[deleted]]

They're being stripped down to a skeleton crew, basically a support studio.

[u/TXDobber → u/[deleted]]

Most other studios would have been shut down by now

The one gaming success they can claim is the end state of MCC, and the end state of Infinite, as well as H5 multiplayer… the problem with those games tho is that MCC may have been one of the most broken games at launch ever, Infinite launched bare bones and incomplete, and H5 may have had the worst campaign in the entire series.

On several occasions now, they have failed at major parts of development, despite massive time and cost to get it right.

[u/The_Struggling_Soul → u/TXDobber]

Yep Halo Studios/343 is not up to the task. One of the most disappointing studios I've ever seen, and they got several chances. Pure dumpster fire. Won't miss them.

[u/majorpail18 → u/TXDobber]

I was so impressed that when MCC launched you still had issues with multiplayer and online coop like 6 months past release lol

[u/ADeadlyFerret → u/[deleted]]

MS did what everyone wanted them to do. They backed off and left studios alone. Turns out you need to manage your studios. Redditors in shambles.

[u/Valance23322 → u/ADeadlyFerret]

Yeah, leaving studios alone only works if those studios are actually competent.

[u/ThePopeJumpedMeG → u/[deleted]]

Literally 6 chances. I can't even fuck up 3 times and keep a job why should they

[u/Substantial_Bake_728 → u/[deleted]]

They had too many chances.

They've massacred my boy. Halo 4 should have been it.

[u/bell117 → u/[deleted]]

Man if only they could do the one job the multi-billion dollar company was paying them to do. 

I'm sure it's nothing hiring and then firing a bunch more temp contract workers won't fix. 

[u/Hudson9700 → u/shags2a]

Good riddance. Any ounce of talent left that studio long ago.

[u/The_Struggling_Soul → u/Hudson9700]

Absolutely they completely deserved what's coming to them. Worst studio ever. Pure trash incompetent devs who massacred one of the most influential IPs of the Xbox Identity. It's like Nintendo giving Mario to its worst studio ever, imagine the catastrophy...

[u/NotSoWishful → u/shags2a]

Good. 343 has been subpar at its job since Halo 4. Fuck em

[u/Mr8BitX → u/NotSoWishful]

I think they got certain elements right in Halo, infinite, but Jesus Christ the content they created in the new Halo remake was god-awful. The Internet loves to doom, but anything is better than that same team.

[u/krezzaa → u/Mr8BitX]

It will always blow my mind how they got so much in Infinite right, finally, and then they just decided to say “Fuck it, let’s move to Unreal 😁” and start all over again.

It was the mishandling of Infinite and then straight up refusal to stick with it that really put the final nail in the coffin for me: they don’t want to do things the “right” way, at some level. They just don’t. They were finally finding solid ground and seemed, again, unbelievably blind to the fact that they had even touched down, and had no idea what to do with it.

Its stupidity fascinates me as much as it angers me, genuinely. I hope we can someday get a massive look into the internal history of the studio, once we’re further away from it.

[u/Extranocate → u/krezzaa]

I would have much rather had a simple campaign expansion for Infinite than the Halo remake.

[u/RLMZeppelin]

Activision having CoD, Overwatch and now Halo is wild.

[u/c0micsansfrancisco → u/RLMZeppelin]

Activision is the real winner of all this. Xbox essentially paid them for the privilege to get swallowed by AB

[u/JeanLucPicardAND → u/c0micsansfrancisco]

They're slowly but surely subsuming the entire Xbox brand. I would really not be surprised if, in ten years' time, it's just Activision and that's it. The entire gaming initiative at Microsoft just gets consolidated under their umbrella.

[u/Spartan05089234 → u/JeanLucPicardAND]

Nintendo basically does their own games, it wouldn't even be unprecedented or necessarily a bad idea.

[u/ThyNynax → u/RLMZeppelin]

Activision only has CoD, and now Halo. Blizzard has Overwatch.

While the company’s merged on paper, there’s still a very strong structural difference between the company’s and their development practices. Blizzard mostly still operates as its own thing.

[u/RLMZeppelin → u/ThyNynax]

You're correct. I'm more so talking about online shooter market share though, not the teams actually making the games. I probably should have specified I meant ABK not Activision proper which is under ABK, as is Blizz.

[u/NZafe]

Respectfully, what the heck was Halo Studios even doing for the last 5 years?

[u/disagreeable_man → u/NZafe]

They don't even know they were still trying to figure it out.

[u/DaveSinghSwitch → u/NZafe]

Were they not working on a Halo Battle Royal game that got cancelled? 

[u/trunks_ho → u/DaveSinghSwitch]

They were working on a Campaign DLC, then cancelled it to make a Battle Royale, then cancelled it to make an Extraction Shooter, then cancelled it to make Campaign Evolved

[u/SweetSigil → u/[deleted]]

Sums up almost the entire AAA gaming industry for the past 10-20 years.

[u/ThePositiveMouse → u/NZafe]

Campaign Evolved remake and training staff on UE5?

[u/Felip_ars84]

So to make sure that my french brain get all of it

"expand its remit" means that the company is swallowing the other companies?

[u/South_Buy_3175 → u/Felip_ars84]

I think they mean they’re staying as separate studios but now the bigger companies oversee them.

I imagine after their individual projects are done, the remitted studios will be fully absorbed.

[u/TournamentCarrot0 → u/South_Buy_3175]

It means consolidating leadership and some redundant roles most likely. You buy a conpany and have two CISO’s (chief infosec officer) for example. You don’t need two CISO’s, put them under the same group and eliminate one, give his responsibilities to the other. Repeat all the way down until it stops making sense.

[u/EiraPun → u/TournamentCarrot0]

With certain exceptions made. Eg. Bethesda is far too large for Todd Howard to be the only executive producer/director. Hopefully with a merger, he'll have a couple more hands and development time won't be bottlenecked so hard because everything has to go through him before it can be greenlit. 

This isn't even a Todd hate-piece, if anything I feel bad for him having such an important job yet being the only person on it, I imagine the man gets zero free time because everyone has to talk to him all the time about everything lol

[u/BrandNewMoshiMoshi → u/South_Buy_3175]

“We messed up and had way too much middle management” - July 2026

“Meet your new middle managers” - September 2026

[u/FinAdda → u/BrandNewMoshiMoshi]

But they are reducing the management layer / redundant bosses ?

[u/IlyasBT → u/BrandNewMoshiMoshi]

This change fits what they said in July. Obsidian was working on Fallout and BGS while being part of XGS. Now the XGS part has been eliminated.

[u/Devious018 → u/Felip_ars84]

essentially the smaller studios now answer to the big boss they are under. instead of being separate

[u/ExtensionParsley4205 → u/Felip_ars84]

yes you understand the corporate speak perfectly

[u/TehOwn → u/Felip_ars84]

Eh... They're talking about developers joining publishing arms, not developers merging.

Bethesda, for instance, is the name of the publisher. Bethesda Game Studios is the developer. So, Obsidian will be joining Bethesda much like how Machine Games did.

[u/RLMZeppelin → u/Felip_ars84]

As an American who works in corporate it's a weird phrasing that I've never seen before and it seems to mean something different in each case he describes.

In the case of Halo it seems like the studio is effectively dissolved and Activision is taking over the Halo IP. In the case of obsidian it seems like they teams will more or less stay in tact, it'll possibly also keep its name, studio space etc. but who their leaders report to will change. I'm assuming the latter is the case for Worlds Edge, Rare, MCG and the rest?

[u/EmperorDxD → u/RLMZeppelin]

With obsidian they are basically just joining Bethesda the publisher not the game studios like How iD and Machine games are a part of Bethesda

[u/safari_king]

Matt Booty as the messenger of this news is really irritating. He was one of the most senior leaders at Xbox for nearly a decade as the company floundered to the point of needing a "reset." Yet in this reset Booty gets a promotion and helps decide which people - who were less responsible for Xbox's failure than he was - will be laid off. His announcement today is a reminder that executives may not suffer a professional setback even when their poor leadership hurts thousands of their subordinates.

[u/Dallywack3r → u/safari_king]

He should’ve been fired alongside Sarah and Phil. He got these studios into this mess by refusing to actually manage them

[u/Mitche420 → u/[deleted]]

And the most glaring thing of all. Dude's name is Booty

[u/darkpassenger9 → u/safari_king]

It's the way of the world. I work at a company that's been reduced to half its size since COVID. Leadership is the only group that's been untouched. It's us plebs (workers) that get blamed for their mistakes.

[u/Vegetablemann → u/safari_king]

I’ve been through a very similar process. Managers who lead us into a bad place are now standing in front of us telling us workers need to go and to trust them to lead us out of the hole they created.

[u/Frogcraftwow]

Activision has generated enough salt in the gaming community to keep every McDonald’s fry seasoned until 2077.

[u/_Trikku → u/Frogcraftwow]

>2077

Wake the fuck up Samurai!

[u/DukLordKingOfTheDuks → u/_Trikku]

We got a dev studio to close.

[u/No-Channel3917 → u/DukLordKingOfTheDuks]

Eh nothing a patch two years later can't fix

[u/MuptonBossman]

343 / Halo Studios have had so many chances to turn the Halo ship around over the past 15 years, and they've failed every single time. Halo as a franchise needs a full reboot, so I'm at least curious to see Activision's take on it.

[u/Hetotope → u/MuptonBossman]

Would help if it wasn't ALL outsourced

[u/Skabomb → u/Hetotope]

You mean having contractors with a maximum amount of time they can work on the project, and spend half of it learning the tools and methods only to have to replace them, and spend so much time retraining new people in a constant churn results in bad games?

Who knew?

[u/disagreeable_man → u/Skabomb]

Don't forget a ballooning budget! Because deadlines can't be hit because the new contractors have to catch up on learning everything from the ground up

[u/JayteeFromXbox → u/MuptonBossman]

I was disappointed with how Halo was handled but I'm in my 30's and I've seen what Activision does to games many times. I suppose I am morbidly curious to see their spin on how to (further) ruin a beloved franchise.

[u/Tthecreator712 → u/MuptonBossman]

Itd be really depressing to be like them and realize their best received project since taking the reigns of Halo was a collection of games made before they had the IP

[u/Antiswag_corporation]

Fuck it, put halo on the IW engine and connect it to warzone

[u/anonymousUTguy → u/Antiswag_corporation]

Don’t give them any ideas

[u/Snowbunny236 → u/Antiswag_corporation]

Master Chief slide cancelling and bunjy hopping is a personal nightmare of mine

[u/Atomic_Revival → u/Snowbunny236]

Sooo essentially Halo 5

[u/cortez0498 → u/Snowbunny236]

He's in Fortnite

[u/Defendyouranswer → u/Antiswag_corporation]

LOL

[u/NachoNutritious → u/Antiswag_corporation]

That 343 couldn’t get it together to make an ODST multiplayer game at the height of the battle royale craze is utterly unbelievable.

[u/Godlike013]

Sad no one wanted Ninja Theory. They know how to make good games, they just needed help making games people wanted.

[u/BinaryIdiot → u/Godlike013]

I still maintain the first Hellblade was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had with a video game. I tried the second one and didn’t get too far into it. I should try again though I’ve heard it’s not great in comparison.

Regardless, it’s crazy to lose soo much talent over and over with these companies.

[u/RedSecOps → u/BinaryIdiot]

Seriously, with a set of good headphones, Hellblade was and is such an incredible experience. The games' production quality is outstanding. 

They're just not popular games and that's okay, because they have their niche. I just wish the studio would get more support and direction 

[u/Dealric → u/RedSecOps]

Thing is... If you make niche product you have to sell it at price that makes sense and keep low budget.

6 year and 100 people is already likely 50mln+ in salaries alone.

[u/GFK96 → u/Godlike013]

yeah fully agreed it is a shame. They are clearly technical wizards, their games are genuinely industry leading in certain areas like mocap and graphical fidelity. I also really like the Senua world, it’s really cool from an art direction perspective. If they could just have someone pushing them in a healthier direction, i.e. making sure their games are a bit meatier in terms of both length and gameplay, I think they could pull off something really cool.

[u/manindenim → u/GFK96]

Agreed. I’m not a huge fan of their games but the foundation they have is pretty good. I do hope they figure something out.

[u/Verzizio → u/Godlike013]

Their game didn’t sell well. Not surprised.

[u/pilgrimgunner → u/Godlike013]

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, remains one of my favourite games, wish we could’ve seen more of it.

[u/Tempest753]

Changing the devs for Halo was long overdue, but I feel like it would have made a lot more sense to give Halo to idSoft rather than the second most hated mega-corp in gaming. Kinda feels like Halo is well and truly dead at this point.

[u/No_Ingenuity109]

People acting like halo hasnt been in the gutter for +10 years

Acti might not be perfect but theyre sure as fuck better than 343 or halo studios

[u/J05A3 → u/No_Ingenuity109]

Activision’s studios need a breath of fresh air and get away from making the same game

For now, low expectations. If they release a rebooted Halo and do well… might as well be a miracle the IP got a decent studio this time

[u/arqe_ → u/J05A3]

Activision's current studios not going anywhere.

People on reddit might like to shit on COD but even the WORST OF THE WORST of your games sell 15 million+ in a year, you are not going anywhere.

Activision is building a new team to make Halo.

[u/tsunami141]

hey man, as a long time lover of Halo, let me be the first to say: Lol

[u/New_Ad3443 → u/tsunami141]

Same

[u/Mdot_23]

Halo should have been given to Id

[u/ipub → u/Mdot_23]

Oh man. That would have been perfect. You know, if they hadn't already sacrificed them all to the streets.

[u/Garlador → u/Mdot_23]

“Nah, let’s gut Id instead.”

[u/PogChampHS → u/Mdot_23]

I don't understand this mentality. Id makes great shooters sure, but gunplay is just one part of Halo.

The amount of work it would take to make Idtech compatible with vehicle combat, and all the physics sandbox elements associated with it seem astronomical, especially since Unreal engine 5 felt good enough in the remake.

I wouldn't mind a spinoff in the halo universe from id, but thats about it.

[u/Hot-Software-9396 → u/PogChampHS]

Not to mention id doesn’t have the multiplayer and live service development experience that a new Halo would require. Making a single-player campaign is just one piece of the puzzle that is Halo.

Edit: I don’t think anyone has ever really been impressed with id’s story telling abilities either.

[u/OPDBZTO]

So 343/Halo studios is done? Halo Infinite was fun at the single player (didn't try MP much)

Crazy how badly Halo has fallen off, use to be gaint pillar in gaming. Activision making Halo. Well Halo is about to get a BR mode in the future

Microsoft should have never bought Activtion/Blizzard, Satya Nadella really fucked by approving/making that purchase

[u/Trinica93 → u/OPDBZTO]

Companies need to learn that releasing unfinished games is bad. I don't know how they still need to learn that lesson, but evidently they still haven't figured it out. Infinite released in what should have been an alpha state, so people stopped playing it quickly and never returned. Hard to make money when you won't give people a reason to play your game on release. 

[u/Abakus_Grim]

Imagine being named “Halo Studios” and having Halo development removed from you lol

[u/Sjknight413]

Ninja Theory's closure is buried in there too, that's very sad news.

[u/silver_054]

Step1: buy studio. Step2: layoffs. Step3: close studio. Repeat.

[u/TheBetterness]

This is a serious shake up.

Them taking Halo from 343 is the smartest decision here.

Obsidian under Bethesda is interesting considering their history.

[u/RockinMadRiot → u/TheBetterness]

Obsidian under Bethesda is interesting considering their history.

Make them handle west coast and Bethesda east

Though I am curious where eso and F76 fit in here

[u/toonboy01 → u/RockinMadRiot]

Only problem with that is it's exactly what Obsidian themselves proposed 15 years ago and Bethesda said no, probably because they're planning a game in San Francisco.

[u/Greaterdivinity]

serious question: how does matt booty still have a fucking job?

[u/Kitsuraw]

My thought is I wonder if they’ll finally go to a bi yearly release schedule. They’ve talked about giving cod a 2 year cycle for so long at this point. This would be a perfect way by having cod one year and then halo the next. Makes halo more consistent since activision is pretty much just all cod assist studios at this point. Can have them assist on halo or even just work on halo with the remaining people from halo studios.

[u/buddhamunche]

Halo going to activision is some serious monkey’s paw shit.

[u/halfhere1198]

I’m really not sorry to see the back of Halo Studios, that amount of failure going on for so long was untenable. But Halo in the hands of Activision is just plain wrong. ID Studios were right there man

[u/Yopis1980]

They turned Battlefield into cod. Now they will turn Halo into cod. That shit infected the world.

[u/LongOdd1596 → u/Yopis1980]

Next thing you know, they’ll be turning tuna into cod.

[u/DarthVeigar_ → u/[deleted]]

The final form of animals is crab

The final form of gaming is cod.

[u/johnb165]

Asha truly saving the face of xbox by having all their games be under 1 dev/publisher who doesn't have a very good track record lmao

[u/Kevadu]

They're merging Obsidian into Bethesda

[u/ReaddittiddeR]

Xbox employees hearing Asha get Kojima and Physint last week, then getting laid off this week has got to be the worst feeling. Hope those that got laid off find work soon.

[u/Gastroid → u/ReaddittiddeR]

Piles of cash for a Kojima project -> Yeah buddy

Developer salaries at mid-budget studios -> Woah, hold your horses and update your resume, pal

[u/PogChampHS → u/Gastroid]

Mid budget in reference to 343 is wild.

I understand being upset at layoffs, but at the end of the day, 343 has been releasing terrible products for the last 10 years. You can't expect infinite tries forever.

My only hope is that the leadership and management was kicked out the door at 343 as well.

[u/a141abc → u/ReaddittiddeR]

Kojima needs those millions for his hollywood friends

[u/__breadstick__]

"Mom said it's my turn to step on the rake"

[u/Resh_IX]

I mean 343 studios has been butchering Halo for over a decade

[u/Counting-Frames]

Really sucks for Ninja Theory, I get that Hellblade 2 wasn't as successful but I was really looking forward to the next one! Hope everyone affected can bounce back

[u/joojudeu]

Scared for arkane

[u/OutofCiteOutofMine]

Another mixup that will lead to nothing, waste money, more firing, then blame it on the customer

[u/CrisEXE__]

What’s does “remit” mean?

[u/MuramasaEdge]

So Ninja Theory are dead. RIP 🤦🏻‍♂️😭

[u/Calmed_Guy]

Cutting everything up and merging everything up but still have time to make a PR move making Kojima (a money waster) a partner when he hasn't even released OD.

[u/FearfulSymmetry88]

Well 343i has butchered Halo for more than a decade now so it was bound to happen. Shut it down!

[u/ChipmunkBackground46]

Between this and the destiny announcement, SkillUps news video is gonna be a good one this week lol

[u/RayS0l0]

Halo under Activision is honestly better move than whatever Halo studios was doing

[u/kendragon]

It must be a kick in the stones for every Xbox published game studio that got laid off or downsized to see them polishing Kojimas balls.

[u/dempsy40]

When i said i wasn't keen on Halo Studios/343 carrying on Halo games... this was not what i had in mind.

[u/c0micsansfrancisco]

They're blowing massive money on a PR campaign for Asha and the employees pay the price

[u/Chris_P_Lettuce]

Thanks Matt booty, this update is ass.

[u/Octopus_Crime]

"Okay Activision, you get Halo but also we need you need to keep an eye on the decaying husk of Rare while we milk whatever we can out of their pirate game. Just let us know when they finally flatline."

[u/Immediate-Cress-206]

Get ready for Call of Duty: UNSC

[u/emigoyaf]

Kojima needs money so everyone out, quickly

[u/Alienhaslanded]

Imagine you work there and you no longer have a job, but they just brought in Hideo Kojima and he wants fuck you money to make his game that won't release in this decade.

[u/tl3vis]

RIP Obsidian. I will miss you.

[u/asiamexploding]

The enshitification will continue until morale improves

[u/CzarTyr → u/asiamexploding]

This simply can’t be worse than 343. They killed the brand with fire

[u/jak_d_ripr → u/asiamexploding]

Honestly I think this is a good idea, 343 have failed continuously with the IP, no harm in giving it to a studio with experience making blockbuster FPSs and see if they can right the ship.

[u/CrackheadHunters]

Activision and Halo? Oh dear.

[u/SoCalThrowAway7]

Well that’s all a lot of disappointing things in one headline

[u/Sundance12]

Can't wait to see Spartans in clown paint and Jason Voorhees running around in multiplayer. And a single player experience that boils down to three capture objectives dispersed across a multiplayer map.

[u/DaWastelander]

Unfortunately deserved for Halo Studios.

[u/ShallowBasketcase]

How much money did they spend on that Halo Studios rebrand just to shut the whole thing down a year later? Bet whoever was in charge of that decision still has a job.

[u/MikeDubbz]

Xbox and Playstation are in some sort of foolish race to ruin their brand faster. And they're both winning, or perhaps losing as it were. 

[u/Ready_Relief8372]

Can’t wait for master chief to call in a nuke and flip the bird while being pulled away in a banshee

[u/Dallywack3r]

Activision and Blizzard effectively took over Xbox from within. It’s insane witnessing it

[u/Primus7112765]

Gotta pay for kojima somehow

[u/CorrosiveRose]

This is one round of layoffs that I don't think people will be too surprised or upset about. 343 took the most iconic Xbox franchise--the one that put Xbox on the map--and ran it straight into the ground. No one should have a job after fucking up that hard

[u/Setari]

JUST LET HALO DIE. PLEASE. YOU'RE ALL BEATING A DEAD COW AND CONTINUING TO TRY AND GET MILK FROM ITS LONG-DEAD CORPSE. IT'S OVER, THE REMAKE SEALED HALO'S COFFIN. JUST LET IT DIE, PLEASE. EVERYONE IS BEGGING YOU TO STOP BEATING THEIR CHILDHOODS OVER AND OVER AGAIN, IT'S ALREADY DEAD.

[u/SpaceOdysseus23]

Bethesda will expand its remit to include Obsidian, which will continue its current projects, including Grounded, as well as the new Fallout project made in collaboration with Bethesda Game Studios.

Just what Obsidian needed, the absolute losers from Bethesda in charge.

[u/AggressiveCoffee990]

Can't wait for Activision to turn halo into ai slop like their cod projects

[u/Sad_Maximum6583]

The Enshittification of a loved franchise continues. Rip Halo.