Xbox Is Changing Who Makes Halo and Other Big Games
Microsoft is putting Activision in charge of Halo, Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires in an Xbox shake-up announced Sept. 22, 2026. The plan cuts about 268 Xbox jobs in the near term. The Verge
That puts three long-running game series under one manager. Think of a publisher like a head office that handles budgets, testing and releases for several game teams. Activision will now manage Halo, Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires. The job cuts will happen in stages.
Halo and strategy franchises consolidate under Activision
Activision will make the next main Halo game, not Halo Studios. Halo Studios will keep updating Halo Infinite and Halo: Campaign Evolved. One group will care for the current games while another builds the new one.
The next Halo from Activision will come from a new team made for that job. It will be separate from Call of Duty development. That means different staff, different managers and different technical plans. Existing Call of Duty teams are not simply moving to Halo.
World's Edge, the studio behind Age of Empires, is joining Activision. Strategy games will now sit in the same group as Halo. Rare's UK team is joining the Activision side of Xbox as Activision takes control of Sea of Thieves. That online multiplayer game and its team will now report to Activision.
Bethesda, racing and casual realignment
Obsidian is moving to Bethesda to work on a new Fallout title. That pairs a role-playing studio with the Bethesda group for that project. No release details were given in the confirmed facts.
Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games are merging into one studio focused on Forza Horizon and Fable. Two teams that make racing and open-world games become one working unit. The stated focus is Forza Horizon and Fable.
Microsoft is moving its casual games unit for Solitaire, Mahjong and Minesweeper from Bethesda to King. Those simple, widely used Windows games go to the group focused on mobile games. They are short games made to run on many devices and to be updated over time.
Headcount and timeline
Microsoft said 3,200 roles will be affected by Xbox cuts in its 2027 financial year ending in June 2027. The 268 near-term cuts are part of that larger phased total. Xbox Wire lists an Announcements article titled "Continuing Our Reset."
This reset follows months of warning signs. In June 2026, the Xbox division was planning major job cuts for the next month, with Asha Sharma named as the new chief executive officer of Xbox leading its 2026 overhaul. Bloomberg Xbox planned large cuts to marketing and other budgets as part of that overhaul. Reuters
Earlier job cuts give context. Microsoft planned to cut 4,800 jobs in July 2026 including an overhaul of its Xbox unit. Reuters Microsoft cut 650 jobs in its Xbox games unit in September 2024. Past reporting also listed Raven, Sledgehammer Games, Rare, ZeniMax Online Studios, Halo Studios, and King among groups hit by Xbox cuts. Those earlier numbers describe past phases and reporting, not the current Sept. 22 plan.
The broader context here is consolidation around fewer managers instead of many separate studios. Halo, Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires answer to Activision. Fallout work pairs Obsidian with Bethesda. Casual games sit with King. Racing and Fable share one team.
In my view, the practical aim is simpler ownership and fewer handoffs between groups. A new Halo team will still need to make basic choices on game software, art tools, online play code, anti-cheat and updates. Two Halo codebases will run at once under different owners for a time. The merged racing team will need to combine tools and schedules. Casual games will need to fit Windows titles with mobile update methods.
Worth keeping in mind for readers is what this could allow. Shared support can help with approvals, Xbox features, data and customer help. That does not remove creative or technical risk. It changes where the joint work happens.
