Things haven’t been looking great for Xbox studios and properties recently. The company recently fired several employees, while cancelling multiple projects in development, including Everwild, Perfect Dark, and an unannounced first-person shooter from Romero Games. According to a report from Engadget, at least five employees were let go from Halo Studios as part of these layoffs (the team was formerly known as 343 Industries). The report goes on to mention that the atmosphere was already tense following layoffs in 2023, and there hasn’t been a lot of internal happiness with one game in development at the studio. While the quality isn’t where the developers would like it to be, there have been efforts to “rally folks to ship.”
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On top of these concerns, sources for Engadget also took issue with plans for AI. Microsoft has been making a big push to embrace AI across all facets of the company, and one Halo Studios employee noted that “they’re trying their damndest to replace as many jobs as they can with AI agents.” It remains to be seen how Halo fans will feel about AI being forced into games against the will of developers, but the general public has widely opposed AI being forced into games. Even the suspicion of AI’s use in development has been met with heavy backlash over the last two years, and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to change anytime soon.
For now, Halo fans will have to wait and see how things play out for the series. Since 2001, Halo has been treated as the tentpole Xbox franchise, but fans have reason to feel significant concern. Halo Infinite had a lot of problems at launch back in 2021, and while perception around the game improved over the last four years, the series has clearly lost a lot of the cultural draw it once had. There have also been countless rumors about the series eventually going multiplatform, a move that could draw in new players, as it has with so many other Xbox franchises over the last year. However, it would be yet another sign of how much has changed for the Xbox brand.
With so many games cancelled over the last week, Xbox users can’t be blamed for having serious concerns about the brand’s future. There are still several high-profile games in development at the company, but with Microsoft clearly having no problem cancelling games with little notice, it’s going to be hard for users to get too excited. Games like Marvel’s Blade, OD, and Fable could reignite some excitement, provided they actually get released.
At the very least, it looks like Halo Studios will pull back the curtain on its next game later this year. A blog post on the company’s website earlier this week noted that “theย officialย scoopย onย what Halo Studiosย has been working on” will be shown at the Halo World Championship in October. Hopefully by then the team will be feeling a little more confident in the state of their product.
Are you concerned with how things are going at Xbox right now? Do you feel any excitement about the next game from Halo Studios? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky atย @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
