- Hellblade developer Ninja Theory faces closure after two buyout talks fell through.

- Halo will now be entirely led by Call of Duty publisher Activision. Halo Studios will continue to support existing in-market projects, while a new purpose-built team will make the next Halo game.

- Rare and Age of Empires division World’s Edge will also report to Activision.

- Turn10 will be folded into Playground Games.

- There will be 268 job cuts across Halo Studios, other first-party teams and the Xbox Game Studios central organization.

https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/halo-to-activision-xbox-merges-studios

The moves pretty much all make sense. Minus Rare and World's Edge joining Activision. World's Edge, being an RTS studio, would make more sense to join Blizzard. Rare...maybe they will work on something like a new Crash or support Toys for Bob on the new Spyro.

Halo Studios clearly can't be trusted with Halo, so I get that. 

Sucks for Ninja Theory. I hope they are able to find a buyer.

Xbox have posted about it themselves now. Arkane's future still seems up in the air at the moment as they say:

"Consultation with Arkane remains underway and is expected to continue through the end of the year."

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/22/continuing-our-reset/

A statement from Activision president Rob Kostich regarding Halo: “For Halo, our goal is clear: make the greatest Halo game ever, worthy of its universe and legacy, while staying true to what made players love it in the first place. It is a bold ambition, one that this franchise deserves. We have already begun assembling a purpose-built team, unique in capability and talent, ready and excited to deliver this next chapter with the community.”

https://www.gamefile.news/p/xbox-halo-studios-more-cuts-activision-rare

Is Blizzard still under the Activision umbrella? Maybe that is why. 

Sounds better than 1600 people are laid off...

I feel like they would have mentioned Blizzard. But you are possibly right. Activision Blizzard is still one umbrella.

Xbox Game Studios really has been gutted with developers moving to Activision and Blizzard, sold off, going independent, and closures.

• The Coalition
• inXile
• Playground Games
• XGS Publishng
• ????

Playground Games has not been gutted they been expanding since the first Forza Horizon game and I'm pretty sure they are already starting to develop another game besides Fable and the next Forza Horizon game.

I never said they were? The list of studios I put are the ones remaining under Xbox Game Studios.