Call of Duty Zombies Writer Craig Houston Laid Off by Treyarch After About 20 Years

Craig Houston, a senior lead writer at Treyarch, has been laid off after about 20 years with the studio. Eurogamer reported the news on 15 November 2026.

Treyarch is the studio behind a number of Call of Duty games, the shooter series that releases a new instalment most years. It is part of Activision Blizzard, which is owned by Xbox. That makes Treyarch one of the teams affected by Xbox's wider changes to its workforce.

Houston confirmed he was among those affected by the recent layoffs. He said so in posts on X, formerly Twitter, and on LinkedIn, the professional networking site.

His link to the series goes back much further than his recent role. His first Call of Duty title at Treyarch was Call of Duty 3, where he worked as a video editor. Since Call of Duty: World at War, released in 2008, he had been the main writer for Zombies, the mode in which players team up to survive waves of undead enemies.

A writer on a large game shapes the dialogue, characters and story that players encounter, and in a mode like Zombies that often means a long run of releases. Houston's name has been tied to that work for most of the mode's history, which is why his departure stands out to fans who have followed it.

The layoffs are part of a reorganisation at Xbox that affects 3,200 jobs. Xbox announced the plan earlier this year. A reorganisation is a restructuring of how a company is set up and staffed, and in this case it reaches studios across the Xbox group.

Treyarch's teams are now working without one of their longest-serving writers. The developer's future releases and staffing decisions will depend on the plans set out by the company.