Back in July, Xbox cut 1,600 jobs as part of its reset under new leadership, and promised to cut 1,600 more over the next 12 months. Recently, the company has announced that it has laid off 268 roles within various studios under its umbrella as part of its continued reorganising. Those studios have also been moved around in the organisation chart, with some weird results. One example is the next Halo game being made by Activision.
In an Xbox Wire blog post, Xbox executive VP Matt Booty mentioned the job cuts above, stating that this round of reorganisation brings the Microsoft videogames division “roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring”. The part about reorganising studios includes “strengthening our franchises and games by operating fewer business units, aligning groups that already work closely together, and focusing our publishing expertise”.
Halo Studios Not Making Next Halo
As a result, World’s Edge and Rare will be placed under Activision, without them being absorbed by the larger entity. Activision will also be developing the next Halo title as mentioned earlier, and more specifically, “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”. This puts the newly renamed studio in a bit of a precarious situation, with it not making the next game in the series it was renamed after.
Similarly, Obsidian will be placed under Bethesda, the subsidiary of ZeniMax that Microsoft paid the big bucks for. This one makes a bit more sense, as both will be continuing work on the new Fallout project anyway. Then there’s Playground Games, which makes the Forza Horizon series, and Turn 10, which does Forza Motorsport. These two are being merged so that they can focus on both Forza Horizon as well as Fable.
Ninja Theory May Be Lost
Finally, if you recall, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs were supposed to be sold to new owners as was announced back in July. While the latter has found a new publisher, Booty announced that two separate deals to sell Ninja Theory fell through. This means that Xbox “will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward”. The fate of Arkane, as of now, remains up in the air.
(Source: Xbox)
