Xbox cuts 268 roles, hands the next Halo to Activision and proposes closing Ninja Theory
Xbox is cutting 268 more roles, moving the next Halo to Activision and consulting on closing Ninja Theory. Matt Booty says the reset announced in July is roughly three-quarters done.
Xbox is cutting another 268 roles and redrawing the map of its first-party studios, chief content officer Matt Booty told employees on 22 September 2026. The next Halo game moves to Activision, Obsidian moves under Bethesda, Playground and Turn 10 merge into one studio, and Ninja Theory has been put into consultation over a proposed closure.
The cuts fall "across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer", Booty wrote. They are the second wave of the reset Xbox CEO Asha Sharma set out on 6 July, which planned roughly 3,200 role reductions across the fiscal year, about 1,600 of them immediately, plus the departure of four studios. Booty said the actions completed since July, divestitures included, bring Xbox "roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring".
Fewer studios, wider remits
- Activision takes on World's Edge and Rare, alongside Call of Duty.
- Bethesda takes on Obsidian.
- King takes on Microsoft Casual Games.
- Playground and Turn 10 become a single studio, responsible for Forza and Fable.
The next Halo is an Activision game
Activision will develop the next Halo title with "a new, purpose-built team that is separate from ongoing development and plans for Call of Duty", Booty wrote. A reduced team stays at Halo Studios, the Redmond studio formerly known as 343 Industries, to support the Halo community and the games already in market. Xbox gave no release window, and the next Halo has still not been announced as a product.
Who is leaving Xbox, and who might close
Compulsion Games and Double Fine "returned to management with their IP, back catalogs, and runway funding", Booty wrote. Undead Labs has now transitioned on similar terms, and State of Decay 3 is still set to arrive day one on Game Pass.
Ninja Theory is the exception. Two separate agreements to hand over the Hellblade studio fell through, and Xbox has started consulting employees on a proposed closure while it keeps looking for a buyer. Arkane, whose works council process in France opened in July, is still in consultation, and Xbox expects it to run to the end of the year.
What it changes for the games
When it announced the reset in July, Xbox said no game already announced was being cancelled, and nothing in this week's message contradicts that. Obsidian keeps its current projects inside Bethesda, including Grounded and a new Fallout project made with Bethesda Game Studios. Forza and Fable end up under one roof, with Playground and Turn 10 merged into a single studio. State of Decay 3 keeps its day one Game Pass commitment.
What none of this answers is when any of it ships. The next Halo has no date, no platform list and no name; Fable and State of Decay 3 are both dated 2027 in our catalogue, and both are now made by studios whose reporting line changed this week.
What happens next
Xbox has scheduled an all-Xbox town hall for 6 October, to look back at the progress of the reset and preview games coming up. By Booty's own count the restructuring is about three-quarters done, which leaves a last quarter of it to land before the end of the fiscal year.
