Call Of Duty creators Activision to make next Halo game as Xbox confirm layoffs

Master Chief answered the call (Microsoft)

Xbox has confirmed the next Halo game will be created by a new team under Activision, as studios including Rare are brought into the house of Call Of Duty.

After reports emerged last night over more Xbox layoffs, Microsoft has announced a bunch of studio mergers and shifts as part of the company’s ongoing ‘reset’. 

This restructuring began in July when Xbox CEO Asha Sharma laid off 1,600 employees, with a further 1,600 people set to lose their jobs before the end of June 2027. 

Now, Xbox has announced 268 people will be laid off across developer Halo Studios, other first party studios, and management at Xbox Game Studios. 

Additionally, despite being called Halo Studios, the developer will no longer be leading the next game in the series. As confirmed in an Xbox Wire blog post, Call Of Duty creator Activision will be developing the next Halo game, while ‘a small team’ at Halo Studios will ‘continue supporting the Halo community and other games in-market’. 

When combined with the layoffs, it’s unclear if Halo Studios will have any involvement in the future of Halo moving forward. The studio, previously named 343 Industries, has developed every mainline Halo game since 2012’s Halo 4. Their last main entry was 2021’s Halo Infinite, which suffered from poor post-launch support, while this year’s Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original, was largely met with a collective shrug. 

Xbox states the next Halo game under Activision will be led by a ‘new, purpose-built team that is separate from ongoing development and plans for Call Of Duty’. This suggests it won’t be made by Call Of Duty developers like Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer or Treyarch, but by a potential hybrid of its other studios like Beenox, High Moon, and/or Raven Software. 

Along with overseeing the next Halo, Activision is also taking control of Age Of Empires developer World’s Edge and legendary British studio Rare, who are best known today for Sea Of Thieves. 

In a statement about the shift, Activision president Rob Kostich (via Game File) said: ‘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. 

‘It is a bold ambition, one that this franchise deserves. We have already begun assembling a purpose-built team, unique in capability and talent, ready and excited to deliver this next chapter with the community.’

It’s a big move and, while there might be some concern around Halo morphing into Call Of Duty, the franchise has needed a fresh jolt of energy for years – with the past few entries having failed to capture the zeitgeist in the same way as Bungie’s early efforts.

One obvious problem is that if the new studio hasn’t even started work on a new game yet then it’s unlikely to be ready for another five years or more. Which is not going to help Xbox’s plans in the short term.

Activision isn’t the only company with expanded control under this Xbox shift. Bethesda will now oversee Obsidian Entertainment, who are already working together on a new Fallout project.

Forza Horizon developer Playground Games will also merge with what’s left of Turn 10, who created the Forza Motorsport series. The final merger is between Candy Crush makers King and Microsoft Casual Games. 

While these studios will all remain alive in some capacity, things aren’t looking so rosy for Hellblade developer Ninja Theory. In the same blog post, Microsoft said two deals had fallen through to sell the studio, so it’s now facing a ‘proposed closure’. 

Will the Chief ever be back on top? (Microsoft)

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

Comments Add as preferred source