Xbox has officially confirmed that Activision, the mega-publisher behind Call of Duty, will develop the next mainline Halo; Halo Studios will absorb a fresh round of 268 Xbox-wide layoffs and take on a maintenance role for the existing games. That means that for the first time since Bungie handed over the keys to the franchise nearly two decades ago, the studio responsible for Halo won't be making the next game. For the first time in 16 years, the future of Halo now belongs to someone else.
As part of the wider restructuring announced last July, this change in Halo management closes the book on an era that began when 343 Industries (now Halo Studios) took over the franchise. And while job cuts always sting, it tracks that reception to this news already seems wildly mixed. What's lost is a shame, after all: the years Halo Studios spent developing the next game on a new engine, the promise that Halo Infinite reignited in the series. But what comes next might be good — even great, under the right circumstances — it all comes down to how true Xbox and Activision leadership can be to their word, and how fast they can do it; as Halo inches its way toward the legacy IP shelf, there are simply no guarantees, at least not yet.
For starters, the language around this announcement is as exciting as it is confusing. In the memo announcing the changes, Xbox's Chief Content Officer Matt Booty said the next Halo will be "led by a new, purpose-built team," one that operates apart from Activision's ongoing Call of Duty development. Activision president Rob Kostich reached for the same wording in his statement, saying the publisher has already started assembling a purpose-built team of its own.
The exact language is a telling piece of coordinated messaging, presumably meant to reassure fans that Halo won't become a side project for or akin to the larger Call of Duty machine, but it also raises an awkward question. If any team in the gaming industry was purpose-built for Halo, it was the one literally named after it. Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, was founded by Microsoft specifically to steward the franchise after Bungie's departure, and whatever Activision assembles will be starting fresh on a series that already had a dedicated home.
Of course, none of this is a personal defense of Halo Studios' recent record, as Halo: Campaign Evolved felt soulless to me, more of practical income generator more than a creative statement. The studio was also, as I see it, far too slow to build on the goodwill Halo Infinite earned. Still, cutting loose the franchise's own studio in favor of a team that's only now being assembled is a strange way to signal confidence in Halo's future.
This messaging becomes even stranger when you consider what Halo Studios has been doing until now: In 2024, 343 Industries rebranded as Halo Studios and announced it was moving the series to Unreal Engine 5, a transition that was always going to eat into development time. The studio framed that new foundation as the groundwork for Halo's future, with multiple projects in the works. Campaign Evolved was the first public result of that shift, and now it may also be the last.
Even before that, Halo Infinite was something of a soft reset for the series, and for all its rough edges, Infinite truly gave fans a reason to believe again, if only for a little while. Its free-to-play multiplayer drew a huge crowd at launch, and its more open campaign pointed toward a Halo that could grow over time. The problem was always what came next, and what came next took years.
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