Halo Studios Gutted to ~20 Staff as Activision Takes Reins

Xbox's 268-role restructure leaves Halo Studios at a skeleton crew and hands the franchise's future to a new team under Activision.

Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty announced 268 job cuts across Halo Studios, other first-party developers and central Xbox management, part of a broader plan to eliminate 3,200 roles in Microsoft's gaming division (per MENAFN/Live Mint and LatestLY). The restructuring hands development of the next Halo game to Activision, while Halo Studios shifts to supporting existing games and the player community. Windows Central reports Halo Studios may be whittled down to as few as 20 employees, with well over 200 people impacted.

Among those cut was Josh Daniels, a cinematic director at Halo Studios who joined in July 2024 after nearly nine years at Turn 10 Studios working on Forza Motorsport, MENAFN relaying Live Mint reports. 'Promoted and laid off in the same week is pretty wild,' Daniels wrote on LinkedIn, where he said he would be looking for cinematic direction or production roles. LatestLY notes he spent 11 years under the Xbox umbrella, and that his exit removes considerable institutional knowledge from the franchise's creative leadership.

Windows Central argues the franchise is 'at such an unbelievable low point' that Activision is a better bet than another Halo Studios game — a striking reversal given Activision's reputation. The outlet points to Halo's launch record: Infinite shipped without campaign co-op or Forge, Halo 5 lacked Forge, and The Master Chief Collection launched in an 'absolutely terrible' state. It also deems Halo: Campaign Evolved among the worst ways to experience the first Halo, with worse cutscenes, awkward pacing and poorly directed voice-overs, while rating the campaign itself 7/10.

Wccftech, citing journalist Chris Dring on The Game Business show, reports the restructuring splits studios between Activision and ZeniMax, with Rare moved under Activision and Obsidian placed under Bethesda. Dring says Obsidian staff 'aren't happy' about losing the autonomy they had, though Bethesda has publicly said it doesn't want to interfere. The episode also covered Undead Labs' failed Splash Damage buyout and Ninja Theory's collapsed sale, with Microsoft now proposing to close the studio. Wccftech's own rumor assessment rates the restructuring report 80% probable.

Windows Central frames the case for hope around shipping discipline: Activision has consistently delivered enormous Call of Duty games annually, coordinating campaigns, multiplayer, live-service content, PC and console support across multiple studios. It also notes Microsoft is reportedly building a completely new team under Activision rather than tasking Treyarch, Sledgehammer or Infinity Ward — an opportunity to hire people who specifically want to work on Halo, with co-creator Marcus Lehto having publicly said he'd love to return. Crucially, the argument goes, Halo needs the structure Call of Duty ships with, not Call of Duty wearing a Halo skin.

Halo Studios remains in a support role for existing titles while Activision leads the flagship series, and the removal of a core cinematic director like Daniels signals a drastically different creative approach ahead, per MENAFN/Live Mint. Bethesda has issued assurances that Obsidian's creative independence stays untouched, and Obsidian confirmed promised DLC for The Outer Worlds 2 is still coming even as the franchise otherwise sits on ice.