Xbox has announced a new wave of redundancies, with 268 staff set to exit the business. In a statement on the Xbox Wire, chief content officer Matt Booty says the role eliminations are focused "across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer."
This all follows the 1,600 role eliminations that were made in July, after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma instituted "the most significant restructure in Xbox history."
The decision to 'Reset Xbox' is expected to ultimately cost up to 3,200 jobs throughout FY27, and this announcement only builds to that number. The reason for the restructure is multi-faceted, although Sharma has said that change is necessary for the company to return to growth and profitability.
As part of the restructure, a number of first-party studios have already exited the Xbox Game Studios ecosystem. Xbox separated from Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions earlier this year, with the developers of South of Midnight and Psychonauts 2 regaining their independence eight years after they were originally acquired.
Undead Labs and Ninja Theory were undergoing similar considerations. Xbox has announced that Undead Labs "has now successfully transitioned on similar terms," and has located a new publisher for State of Decay 3. Unfortunately, the news isn't as positive for the Hellblade creator. Booty says "two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through. We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward." It's unclear what all of this means for the future of Senua, which is slated to release in 2027.
As part of the Xbox Reset memorandum in July, Xbox had announced that Arkane's future was also uncertain and that, in accordance with French law, the studio's management was required to consult with its "Works Council to review potential strategic options." Xbox says that "consultation with Arkane remains underway and is expected to continue through the end of the year." There are no updates of what this means for its Marvel's Blade project.
This latest round of layoffs means that Xbox is around three-quarters of the way through its total planned redundancies, and comes on a day where the company has announced a fairly significant restructure. Obsidian Entertainment is now being managed by Bethesda, with the pair now collaborating on a new Fallout title.
Activision Blizzard King is also expanding its remit; the Call of Duty publisher will now have operational control of Rare and World's Edge (including the Sea of Thieves and Age of Empires franchises), and will establish a new team to lead production of the next mainline installment to the Halo series.
