In the wake of Microsoft gutting Halo Studios to a skeleton crew and passing off the series to Activision, new reports from insiders tell a believable story about what was happening in Halo Studios as the plug got pulled. The accounts come from The Verge’s Tom Warren (longtime Microsoft beat writer) and YouTuber Rebs Gaming (whose sources within the Halo machine are often accurate).
According to sources
- The drastic cuts were a surprise to some Halo Studios employees, who had to wait hours to learn if they still had a job: “The first communication came in a public Xbox blog, before notifications were sent to employees throughout the morning.” (via Warren)
- The next mainline Halo game was, at minimum, “years” away (via Warren and Rebs)
- No games were in full production when the layoffs happened, but work on Halo 2 and Halo 3 remakes, Halo 7, and “spinoff campaigns” was underway (via Rebs)
- One of the shorter spinoff games would’ve been based on the First Strike novel, to be released between remakes (via Rebs)
Rebs’ source also claimed that Halo Studios is now around 30 people, with Warren noting that they’ll be servicing existing Halo games Infinite and Campaign Evolved. Meanwhile, Activision is building a new studio dedicated to the future of Halo.
Acknowledging that there’s always more to a story than a handful of sources can cover, the picture they paint sounds very Halo Studios: slow-moving, scattered, and with one foot firmly in Halo’s past. We all assumed that more remakes were in the cards, but that’s looking less likely now—considering the many ways Campaign Evolved was a step back from the original, I can’t decide if this is a relief of a missed opportunity.
It is sad that these people won’t get a crack at Halo 7, because for all its delays and live-service fumbles, Halo Infinite grew into the best Halo since the Bungie days, and even outshined its original makers in some respects. I hope some of that talent can be aimed toward this next Halo venture.