Microsoft has just announced that they are cutting 10,000 jobs across the company, and you might have hoped that it wouldn’t affect Xbox Game Studios very much. Unfortunately, that is definitely not the case.
Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who many of you probably know has a damn good track record for gaming scoop, claims that many layoffs have taken place and will take place at Xbox Game Studios. This includes perhaps most notably Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries , but also parts of Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield team. Some of those who are not dismissed will instead be relocated.
The biggest example of the latter is Joseph Staten, the Halo veteran who joined 343 to essentially save Infinite in August 2020. He became one of the studio’s real standouts, but is now leaving the team to return to the Xbox publishing department. In itself not so strange as his role was mostly tied to the campaign and getting things on track, but it shows that no one is safe.
The campaign team for Halo Infinite is said to have been hit hard by these layoffs (in total stated 60 people have had to leave the studio), so don’t expect any major story expansions anytime soon.
