Microsoft just said it was cutting 10,000 jobs across the company, so you might have been hoping that it wouldn’t affect Xbox Game Studios too much. Absolutely not.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who probably knows he has a near-perfect record, claims that there have been and will be many layoffs at Xbox Game Studios. That includes 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite developers and part of Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield team. Some of those who were not fired went to other parts of the company instead.
In the biggest example, Halo veteran Joseph Staten, who joined 343 in August 2020 to basically save Infinity, is leaving the team to return to Xbox’s publishing division. It’s not shocking when his role is mostly about story events and just keeping things going. These tasks aren’t very important right now, as most studios have to focus on future multiplayer seasons and “secret modes.” That’s why the Halo campaign was affected by these layoffs.” critical hit” so don’t expect any major story expansions anytime soon.