Bethesda and Obsidian collaborating only makes sense and having Activision develop the next Halo does, as well. Sorry to hear for the 286 but I guess we knew that was coming....

Edit: missed the bit about Rare. Sure, why not? Activision has made a decent amount of games and with Rare's IP, maybe we get a new Banjo-Kazooie or Conker? Longshot, but it could happen.

I'm also reading Ninja Theory is being shut down. Deals to save the studio have fallen through. Such a shame.

Interesting bit that despite the layoffs in 343/Halo Studios, Activision is not leaning to simply take over Halo into one of its studios but instead to create a new team from the ground up. Edit: this new studio likely can end up rehiring people from other closed sectors, but I have a feeling 343/Halo experience will be a negative in any resume.

Shows how distrusted the 343/Halo team is right now at Xbox under new management. They are out of chances.

Also interesting is they noted Undead Labs was still under Xbox in their books, and it’s only now that they got fully divested. So, they personnel count is likely to be part of the reported number or on top.

Personally, I think most of that restructuring seems very logical. Obsidian going under Bethesda makes sense, as they had a lot of overlap and now working together on Fallout.

It also says a lot that Playground and Turn 10 are being left on their own. Seems ASHA has full trust on them continuing to self-manage despite all the reports of development hell on Fable.

As I expected, the Blizzard reports were false or extremely obsolete. Given recent profitability reports, there was no way they were in the chopping block unless some secret project was being canceled.

Rare definitively needed to get moved under real management. They seemed to be running a very disorganized with Sea of Pirates being pure luck.

@Rimebreaker with Turn 10, I'm sure layoffs will come with that because they'll be one team with Playground. Just my guess, anyway, even if it does make sense to merge them.

@IronMan30 there might be some management cuts, but I would imagine minimal. I think this is mostly about having fewer leads reporting directly to Asha. Either a redundant position is eliminated (likely at Turn 10) or a new one created (or reorganized) to be the single overseer of all things Forza/Fable.

@IronMan30 get outta here Alex Jones

..it sounds like Sharma brought AI to the table and in less than a year maybe 20-30% of what was all those studios is no more…hopefully they do some cuts on here we get a new team, new editors, new company over at pure Xbox

Halo studios/343 studios did a terrible job with the halo franchise this is a long time coming in my opinion 👏

I'm a little confused by the Rare news, considering all the talk of there being too many "layers of management" and thats one of the reasons for the company's struggles moving Rare to Activision seems like adding another one.

Merging the gutted Turn 10 and Playground makes total sense; kinda weird they didn't do this when Turn 10 was gutted and became basically the forza-tech studio.

Ok, from a business and efficiency point of view, it makes sense: tightening teams, less management, more agility, etc.

As for Ninja Theory, now that they’ve gone through quite a bit of reorganization, please don’t shut this studio down — keep them. They’re a team of real talent; they just need strong management. Put them under Activision’s management, I don’t know… but don’t close Ninja Theory. These guys have incredible know‑how.

Could've been a lot worse.

As a mainly Playstation and Nintendo guy I like these changes a lot. Not the firing of people of course, that always sucks. Hopefully this stops soon. But taking Halo from Halo Studios is good to see, let’s see what someone else can do with it. I also think getting Obsidian in with Bethesda is cool, as well as merging playground and turn 10. My interest in Helix has gone up (if they go the exclusive route, else I’m just getting them on PS5/6)

RiP Halo it's been fun

@Rimebreaker fair point, if it's management I'm admittedly less sympathetic towards them...

As a Halo fan, this is unfortunate. I know number company bad, I don't think everything they've done has been awful (largely MS execs getting too involved), but clearly the golden Bungie era was gone for good. Not looking forward to a CoD Halo for sure, 4 and 5 were already getting close to that.Time for the next Halo Warzone Battlepass...

Frankly I see mostly good decisions that should’ve been taken a LONG time ago, Obsidian under Bethesda is a perfect match, Rare under Activision could mean the return of many franchises and even Halo under Activision is a good move after Halo Studios/343i consistently failed to manage the franchise.

@Kieduss Halo has been dead for over a decade, if anything this is a chance to revive it.

@abe_hikura the Rare shift is very likely going to result in upper Rare management positions being eliminated. Don’t know who leads Rare but either they are in the job loss count or have been reassigned to different roles.

@Kieduss RIP ??..... Fella its Rememberance Day is coming up.

All these changes make sense. Frankly, the decline of Halo needs to be sorted by a team that knows how to support shooters, Activision is the best place for that.

Not much else to say, sad times for the staff and no doubt a culmination of increasingly poor management from the top.

Whilst I'm sure it'll be... efficient... Obsidian becoming a Bethesda studio signals that its era of original work is over (specifically its bigger projects like Avowed and Outer Worlds)

@IllusiveMan A Rare made Perfect Dark under Activision perhaps ??

@fatpunkslim if I read it right, Ninja Theory is already gone from under Xbox but the deals they signed to keep themselves afloat got canceled.

Their messaging is that Xbox will enter consultations on a recommended closure but sounds more like Xbox is offering them a hand on the paperwork and legality but it’s up to them to take that or keep trying to survive.

This sounds like bad news for Halo but I guess we will see whenever (if) they release the game. Startup studios can struggle to get off the ground as xbox knows well. Im also not crazy about the call of duty wing of xbox making halo decisions.

I would have loved to see Id take a stab at it or just keep it with 343/HS.

These are smart moves in my opinion. Asha is working on making sure the bigger IP’s that MS own are the focus. She not only wants those games to be worked on but worked on by most of their trusted studios. Making it all smaller and under less management was needed. I see this as a win if it makes better games, faster for their bigger owned IP. Of course time well tell cause let’s be real MS will MS.

Rare was negotiating with Activision back during the Microsoft buyout days, so things has turned out a true circle.

RIP Halo, can't see that going well, but would be glad to be wrong. Rare clearly needed some new lead so this makes sense, Turn10 is the most obvious one for me, took then too much time to do that.

@Fiendish-Beaver I don’t think Todd Howard has that much control over Bethesda anymore, in fact I don’t think he’s too happy that Obsidian is making a Fallout game but the decision comes from the very top as avoiding that 15-year gap between releases seems to be Asha’s priority for Bethesda since taking over (and should’ve been Phil’s since closing that acquisition).
I even see Todd leaving after he delivers ES6 before having to wait that much between games.

I’m still quite shocked that they won’t even try to manage the current 343/Halo staff under Activision. They just being all assigned to keep the service bits of Infinite/MCC for the forseable future and that likely only means the launch of the next Halo or until Activision can take over that maintenance.

Even with the amount of talent out there hunting for jobs, it baffles me that they believed starting a brand new studio would be easier than salvaging 343’s workforce.

@HonestHick this is it, Xbox wants to get back to being healthy so lets focus on the big tentpole IP, ones that bring in big money - Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Minecraft etc. but then I really hope ONCE they are healthy, they then begin to experiment again.

If Obsidian can make one or 1 or 2 games really successful titles, hopefully then they can get creative again. Same with Rare.

@themightyant At this point, I don't know how much worse it can get for the franchise. You would have thought that establishing a studio designed specifically to make games for a particular IP would make them a treasured instrument. But 343's inability to safeguard Halo was a colossal failure.

So Xbox Game Studios no longer exists? Sounds like everything is being moved to either Activision or Besthesda?

Musing here about the reorg: obviously Asha has a better view of the inner workings of things, but to me… I would have moved PlayGround and inXile also under Bethesda and cement it as the RPG arm. Also reorg iD and Machine Games under Activision to round it up as the FPS arm.

Side random thought: I wish I had Asha’s ear for an hour, because I would love to make a case for integrating King games into GamePass. I love their mobile games but detest the health systems. I would love a GP (Premium?) that gave me unlimited lives (not power-ups) on King games so I never feel forced to stop playing. I would literally subscribe to GP Premium just for that perk.

This will be the first time I think layoffs and reorganization is going to be beneficial in this case. It helps cut budgets whilst not actually canceling projects outright. My only fear is Halo being under Activision; I don’t know if that will be a good umbrella Halo is under. Regardless, I think Asha is playing her cards right.

All makes sense to me.
Bad about any job losses but all the above moves seem to be in a good direction.

@Cakefish still exists at the moment - The Coalition, Playground Games, InXile, Mojang and Xbox publishing.

@K1LLEGAL ah, thanks for the correction. Seems a bit odd to keep it around in such a shrunken state though. Lost so many studios and IP in the spinoffs and restructuring.

Looking pretty promising except Ninja Theory. They're a really niche studio. If only Inxile was also under Bethesda Publishing we could've a dream Fallout 5. I hope when TES6 eventually launches before I die hope it happens. It also makes sense making all the RPG studios under one umbrella.

More really grim news and also sounds like Microsoft wanting to sell off the whole of Xbox for parts.

@Tasuki That would only lead to more layoffs and studio closures

@Cakefish it’s strange to keep XGS for just those 4 (+ publishing) but perhaps these are the hassle-free studios that can be more directly into Asha without needed whipping into shape by Activision.

Famous dumbo Chris Dring is speculating these will all go under Bethesda or ABK once they release any upcoming projects (E-Day, Clockwork etc). Could be right I don’t know.

All of those changes make total sense to make Xbox more efficient.

Playground and Turn 10 will come together as one studio: I saw this one coming and I'm happy because Playground used Turn 10's technology and cooperation to build their success with Forza Horizon. Horizon is more my thing, but I think Turn 10 warrant recognition as developers.

Bethesda will expand its remit to include Obsidian: I have a lot of respect for Obsidian as an efficient studio that makes interesting and fun games, and they were already working with Bethesda. It almost feel like they were deservedly promoted and together will do more ambitious work with great IPs.

Activision will expand its remit to World’s Edge and Rare: I posted on the other thread that I think this is also for the better and that the current Rare needs to be directed properly, not to mention that Rare's IPs and game design ideas should be rescued.

King will expand its remit to include Microsoft Casual Games: I would have never planned this but it also makes total sense.

That aside, I like Undead Labs, so I'm happy to see that they successfully became independent and that they signed a deal for publishing on Game Pass.

Really sad for everyone losing their job, hopefully they land on their feet and new opportunities soon.
Obsidian becoming part of Bethesda makes a ton of sense. I would have figured Halo studios could have stayed on in remake duty for the rest of the og trilogy rather than getting, for all intents and purposes, shuttered. Not sure what to make of Rare moving to Activision, every studio that ends up in their hands inevitably gets subsumed into the COD machine, but hopefully Sea of Thieves being an ongoing hit will keep them afloat.
Really sucks for Ninja Theory, I hoped their hack & slash pedigree and Hellblade 3 being a back to basics game would have helped them find a buyer.

Sad to see people losing their jobs once again, Microsoft have been savage in that regard.

So very, very sad to see Ninja Theory potentially being closed.,I loved their games. I'm also worried about Arkane and InXile, will they survive Asha's restructuring, we can but hope.