Halo Studios has been particularly affected by the recent wave of layoffs over at XBOX. The restructuring wound up taking Halo away from the studio, giving control of it to Activision instead. Now, it’s being reported that only 20 developers remain at Halo Studios, with the total layoffs numbering in the hundreds.
That is according to Insider Gaming, which cites Technical Halo, who, in turn, is basing their reports on what pro Halo players are saying. The “entire” team responsible for handling the Halo Championship Series—Halo’s primary esports league—is “gone” from Halo Studios, and as many as 20 developers remain employed at the subsidiary following the layoffs.
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This would mean that Halo Studios is, essentially, dead, with a skeleton crew formed to maintain and “support” Activision’s further endeavors regarding the franchise. It’s astonishing, really, to see a studio entirely dedicated to making one franchise lose control of said franchise and become a small-scale support studio with a very uncertain future.
Hand to heart—Halo wasn’t in the best shape under 343, and then Halo Studios’ leadership, having come down from one of the most iconic and popular franchises in all of gaming to basically a sort of FPS lolcow. It hasn’t done well either financially or creatively in quite a long time, but I don’t think handing the reins over to Activision is going to solve both of those problems. It probably will solve the financial side, though.
Recently, XBOX went through another round of restructuring and layoffs, saying it is now three-quarters of the way to its goal. This time around, the company made some massive decisions, placing Obsidian under the direct care of Bethesda Softworks and shipping Halo off to Activision. A lot of other stuff has happened internally, and since this is just the “three quarters” part, I expect more layoffs to come, though at this rate XBOX might not have anyone to lay off by the time it’s done.
