Microsoft hands the next Halo to Activision and cuts 268 gaming roles

If you run a studio, read the ownership changes twice. Halo Studios keeps a small team to support the community and the games already on sale ^[5]. Development of the next Halo title moves to Activision, on a new team kept separate from Call of Duty ^[4]. Rare, which makes Sea of Thieves, and World's Edge, which looks after Age of Empires, go to Activision as well ^[6]. Bethesda absorbs Obsidian, which keeps Grounded and a new Fallout game made with Bethesda Game Studios ^[11]. King takes Microsoft Casual Games ^[12]. Playground and Turn 10 merge into one studio for Forza and Fable, which Booty described as creative and franchise partners for over a decade ^[13]. Rob Kostich, Activision's president, said in a statement: "For Halo, our goal is clear: make the greatest Halo game ever, worthy of its universe and legacy, while staying true to what made players love it in the first place." ^[14] He said the team is already being assembled ^[15]. Halo's own history cuts against the idea that a marquee franchise lost its protection this week. Bloomberg's Cecilia D'Anastasio and Jason Schreier reported that Bungie made the original, launched in 2001 alongside the first Xbox, left in 2007 after Halo 3, and that Microsoft then formed 343 Industries to carry the series on ^[16][17]. 343 was renamed Halo Studios ^[18]. Its games have been expensive, irregular and hard to sell to fans, according to Bloomberg ^[19]. Christopher Dring, editor-in-chief of The Game Business, told the BBC that Halo was once Xbox's crown jewel, and said it had not been one for more than a decade ^[20][21]. Dring said putting the series under Activision makes sense, with the caveat that the company should be mindful not to lose what makes Halo unique ^[22]. Jez Corden of Windows Central called the change a dramatic move, and told the BBC that Halo was once to Xbox what Mario is to Nintendo, but years of mismanagement have eroded that ^[23][24]. The series has now been handed to a third custodian in twenty-four years, by the count of those moves ^[25]. Booty's memo gives only the 268 gaming roles ^[3]. Ashley Stewart put the company-wide figure at around 500, writing in Business Insider, with a small number of roles outside gaming in units such as cloud and AI ^[8]. Todd Bishop reported for GeekWire that Microsoft described the total as fewer than 600 globally, about 300 of them in Washington state, with cuts also in marketing and research ^[9]. Aaron Holmes reported for The Information hours before the memo that Xbox planned to lay off hundreds of staff and consolidate several studios, citing someone briefed on the plans ^[10]. The sale process shows the cost-centre thinking most plainly. Two separate agreements to sell Ninja Theory fell through, and Microsoft will open consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward ^[26]. The Cambridge studio made Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and won a Bafta for it ^[27]. Arkane, in Lyon, is still in consultation, which Booty expects to run to the end of the year, and Engadget's Kris Holt noted that French law obliged Microsoft to open that process before deciding whether to sell, spin out or close the studio ^[28][29]. Of the five studios put up in June, three got out: Compulsion and Double Fine went back to their management in August with their intellectual property, back catalogues and runway funding, and Undead Labs has now done the same ^[30][31][32]. State of Decay 3 will launch day one on Game Pass under a new publisher ^[33]. For anyone inside a first-party studio, the question this week puts on the table is whether the studio is the only place its franchise can be made.