Halo Studios has reportedly been left with as few as 20 employees following the latest round of Xbox layoffs, according to a claim by pro player aPureGangster and cited by Technical Halo.
The info arrives “from a very, very reputable source” and does match with a claim from Jez Cordon from Windows Central, who stated that the developer is “looking at major layoffs in the 100s.” A number of ex-staff have also taken to LinkedIn to reveal that they have lost their jobs, including one employee who was promoted only to be laid off the next day.
Xbox’s Matt Booty announced yesterday that a broad range of changes are in store for the company, with the next Halo game now set to be developed by Activision. Halo Studios was mentioned as suffering layoffs among other first-party studios, and was confirmed to “continue supporting the Halo community” going forward.
Back in early August it was reported that Halo Studios had suffered a number of layoffs just one week after the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved. Nothing official was ever announced at the time, but staff took to social media to reveal they had been laid off, including producer Nick Treitman.
Halo Studios was originally known as 343 Industries and is based in Redmond, Washington as part of Xbox Game Studios. The company took over from series creator Bungie after the release of Halo: Reach, being given complete control of the franchise on March 31, 2012 and released its first major entry in the series, Halo 4, in November 2012.
[Source – Technical Halo, aPureGangster on X via Insider Gaming]