It’s been a tumultuous couple of days forXbox, as the company undergoes another round of layoffs, the fourth in 18 months. In addition to these layoffs, several projects have been cancelled, and one studio, The Initiative, has been shuttered.
Among the cancelled projects areEverwild (Rare),an unannounced sci-fi MMORPG (Zenimax Online), andPerfect Dark (The Initiative). All of these cutbacks have been done in the name of “removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness,” according to an internal email from Xbox head Phil Spencer.
AtHalo Studios, stewards of the series once considered the flagship of the Xbox brand, five employees have been laid off, with morale hitting an “all-time low” according to a developer at the studio (thanks,Engadget).
Crisis Mode
“I’m personally super p*ssed that Phil’s email to us bragged about how this was the most profitable for Xbox in the same breath as pulling the lever… I wasn’t sure what part of that I was supposed to be proud of,” the developer told Engadget.
Last year, 343 Industries rebranded as Halo Studios. Accompanying this announcement was confirmation that the studio would be using Unreal Engine 5 to develop future games, rather than its proprietary Slipspace Engine, and that multiple games were currently in development.
However, despite the fanfare around the announcement, the mood at Halo Studios is currently tense, and one project was reportedly “in crisis” recently.
“I don’t think anybody is really happy with the quality of the product right now,” they said. “There’s been a lot of tension and pep talks trying to rally folks to the ship.”
Halo Studios recently adopted a model similar to that of Battlefield and Call of Duty, where aspects of development are contracted out to support studios to speed up development.
“Xbox in general feels years behind the curve in game development, and it leads to a lot of wasted time and effort,” they continued. Worryingly, they also confirmed that Xbox is “trying their damndest to replace as many jobs as they can with AI agents.”
Halo Studios confirmed it would bemaking a major announcementat this year’s Halo World Championships, set to take place in Seattle in October.
