On Monday it was a report. On Tuesday, September 22, it was a memo with Matt Booty's name on it, and it was bigger than the report.
## The number and the math Booty confirmed 268 roles "eliminated" across Halo Studios, other first-party teams and the Xbox Game Studios management and "central functions layer." In July, Microsoft cut 1,600 jobs and said another 1,600 would follow by the end of its business year. Booty says this round puts Xbox "roughly three-quarters of the way through" that plan. So there's still a quarter left. (VGC)
## Halo leaves home Activision now runs Halo, with what Xbox calls "a new, purpose-built Halo team" separate from Call of Duty. Halo Studios, the team that used to be 343 Industries, stays alive as "a small team" supporting the games already out. Activision also picks up Rare (Sea of Thieves) and World's Edge (Age of Empires). The franchise that sold the original Xbox now reports to the company Microsoft bought for $69 billion. (Kotaku)
## The single-player part This is where the RPG crowd should lean in. Obsidian, the Outer Worlds and Avowed studio, moves under Bethesda and keeps working on its new Fallout game. Playground Games and Turn 10 merge into "one studio focused on the Forza and Fable franchises." Fable is still dated February 23, 2027, and nothing in the memo changes that. Undead Labs is fully independent now, with State of Decay 3 still day one on Game Pass under a new publisher. (Kotaku, GTPlanet)
## Ninja Theory The hardest line in the memo: "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." Ninja Theory made Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, DmC and both Hellblade games. Xbox showed its next one, Senua, at the summer showcase three months ago. A Microsoft source told Game File that reveal was partly to help sell the studio. Arkane, working on Marvel's Blade, is still in consultation through the end of the year. (Kotaku)
## What it means for the rest of us Xbox is the company that just picked up Kojima's Physint. The same week, it's shrinking the teams that ship games like it. Booty says there's an all-Xbox town hall on October 6 to talk about "one of the strongest game line-ups in our history." Maybe so. But the people making those games keep changing buildings, and the studio that put a story about mental health in front of millions of players might not make it to Christmas.
## Sources - Xbox officially announces more layoffs and widespread changes to its entire studio structure: VGC, Sept. 22, 2026 - Xbox working toward closing Hellblade studio Ninja Theory: Kotaku, Sept. 22, 2026 - Activision taking over Halo franchise: Kotaku, Sept. 22, 2026 - Xbox is merging its two Forza teams into one studio focused on Forza Horizon and Fable: Kotaku, Sept. 22, 2026 - Turn 10 merges with Playground Games: GTPlanet, Sept. 22, 2026

