As seems to be a common occurrence with Microsoft this year, the company has announced that in its continued efforts to reset the Xbox brand, it will be eliminating 268 jobs across its gaming divisions. The majority of these come from Halo Studios, the development team originally founded as 343 Industries back in 2007, as Halo is being given to Activision for any future installments. A new team will be formed to handle the franchise separate from Call of Duty, though some members will be left to “support the Halo community.”
The biggest surprise in all of this is the studio consolidation Microsoft is implementing. As mentioned above, Halo is going to Activision, but so is Rare. Nintendo fans will know Rare from the SNES and N64 days, but after Microsoft acquired the British developer in 2002, it has done nothing of major note with it. Viva Piñata is about the only game I can think of that came close to matching old school Rare quality, with the recent Sea of Thieves being successful, but never mainstream. Microsoft does not mention what will happen with Rare’s catalog of IP.
Another major shakeup is Bethesda gaining control of Obsidian. The post notes that ongoing development of Grounded (and likely its sequel) will continue, but Obsidian will be taking charge of a new Fallout project made in collaborating with Bethesda. I suppose that is… something, but it feels like the end of an era for the Obsidian we knew.
The last two developments include King getting control of Microsoft Casual Games, and the fusion of Playground Games and Turn 10 into one studio to focus on Forza and Fable. This mostly reads like a final nail in the coffin for Turn 10, which suffered layoffs last year and the cancellation of the mainline Forza series. I had forgotten Playground Games was even doing Fable, which I’m not convinced will ever release.
Buried at the end alongside news of Compulsion, Double Fine, and Undead Labs successfully transitioning away from Microsoft is a statement that fills me with dread. “Unfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through. We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward,” reads the post, implying that Ninja Theory is basically shutting down soon. Even the remaining half of Arkane seems to be unsafe, which probably extends to any studio under Microsoft’s umbrella.
All told, this is a devastating loss of talented companies that never needed to close down in the first place. Xbox, as a brand, absolutely needs restructuring, but it did not need to result in homogenization and displaced employees.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
