Xbox is cutting 268 roles, with the reductions falling on Halo Studios, other first-party teams, and the XGS management layer, according to a message sent to employees worldwide. The company says the restructuring that began with actions in July is now roughly three-quarters complete, a figure that counts studio divestitures as well as job cuts.
The biggest change for players concerns Halo. Activision's remit is expanding to take in World's Edge and Rare, and Activision is developing the next Halo title through a new purpose-built team. That team sits apart from Call of Duty development and plans, while a small group remains at Halo Studios to support the community and the games already on the market. No timeline has been given for the next Halo title.
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Elsewhere, Bethesda's remit is set to grow to include Obsidian, which the company says will keep going with its existing projects such as Grounded, and a new Fallout project is being made with Bethesda Game Studios. King is taking on Microsoft Casual Games. Playground and Turn 10, creative partners for more than a decade, are merging into a single studio focused on the Forza and Fable franchises.
Not every studio is staying inside the group. Compulsion and Double Fine returned to management in August, keeping their intellectual property, back catalogs, and runway funding, and Undead Labs moved on similar terms. State of Decay 3 will still launch day one on Game Pass, under a new publisher.
Ninja Theory is the hardest case. Two separate agreements for the studio fell through, and Xbox says it is now opening a consultation process with staff over a proposal to close the studio while it weighs other options. The message does not give a closure date. Arkane also remains in consultation, which the company expects to last until the year ends, with no figure given for how many employees are affected.
The reorganization is meant to leave fewer business units, grouping teams that already work closely together and concentrating publishing expertise. An all-Xbox town hall is scheduled for October 6, and Matt will spend next week with the studios.
The message gives no release timing for the Fallout project. It follows a run of first-party news, including Faraday Blues, a 2027 release for Xbox Series X|S and PC with cloud support and 64 reality-altering endings, and a free play weekend for Sea of Thieves Season 21 that ran September 17 to 21 and required no Game Pass subscription.
