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Xbox Layoffs Cut 268 More Roles as Studio Reset Continues
Xbox is continuing the sweeping restructuring announced earlier this year, eliminating another 268 roles while dramatically reorganising several of its biggest studios and franchises.
In a message to employees, Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty confirmed that the latest cuts affect Halo Studios, other first-party developers, alongside Xbox Game Studios management and central functions. The changes made since July, including several studio divestitures, put Xbox roughly three-quarters of the way through its previously announced restructuring.
The cuts arrive alongside an extensive internal reshuffle intended to reduce the number of separate business units, with Activision, Bethesda and King all gaining responsibility for additional studios.
Activision Will Develop the Next Halo
Perhaps the most significant change concerns Halo. Activision will now develop the next game in the series through a new purpose-built team separate from its ongoing Call of Duty development. A smaller group at Halo Studios will remain behind to support existing Halo games and the current community.
Activision’s remit is expanding elsewhere too, with Rare and World’s Edge moving under the company. That places Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires and Halo within the same wider publishing organisation.
Meanwhile, Bethesda will take responsibility for Obsidian Entertainment, which will continue work on its existing projects, including Grounded, alongside a new Fallout project being developed with Bethesda Game Studios. King will absorb Microsoft Casual Games, while Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios will formally combine into a single studio responsible for the Forza and Fable franchises.
Ninja Theory Faces Proposed Closure
The situation is considerably less certain for Ninja Theory. Xbox previously intended to divest the Hellblade developer, but Booty confirmed that two separate agreements have now fallen through. Microsoft will begin consulting employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other possibilities for the studio.
Consultations involving Arkane also remain underway and are expected to continue until the end of the year. Other divestitures have progressed further. Compulsion Games and Double Fine returned to their management teams in August with their IP, back catalogues and runway funding, while Undead Labs has now completed a similar transition. Its new publisher will still release State of Decay 3 on day one through Game Pass.
Xbox Reset Is Around Three-Quarters Complete
The latest 268 eliminated roles follow the much larger round of cuts announced in July, when Xbox began reshaping its first-party organisation and divesting several studios. Booty said the aim of the latest changes is to strengthen Xbox’s games and franchises by bringing teams that already work closely together under fewer business units.
For affected employees, however, the reset is far from an abstract organisational change. Another 268 positions are disappearing, Ninja Theory’s future is now under consultation, and one of Xbox’s defining franchises is moving away from the studio historically responsible for it.
