Matt Booty said Activision will develop the next Halo title with a new team, shifting the franchise’s next flagship installment away from Halo Studios. Microsoft paired that move with a broader Xbox restructuring on July 2, 2026, and the company said around 268 Xbox employees are being laid off.
Booty’s memo on Halo
“Activision will also be developing the next Halo title, led by a new, purpose-built team that is separate from ongoing development and plans for Call of Duty.” Booty wrote that in an internal memo, then added: “A small team at Halo Studios will continue supporting the Halo community and games in-market.”
The split is the part readers should watch. Activision is taking over a franchise that has long sat with Halo Studios, while Halo Studios stays on support duty for Halo Infinite and Halo: Campaign Evolved. That leaves the next mainline game in one studio structure and day-to-day upkeep in another, a setup built for continuity but also for control.
Activision builds a new team
Rob Kostich said, “For Halo, our goal is clear: make the greatest Halo game ever, worthy of its universe and legacy, while staying true to what made players love it in the first place.” He added, “It is a bold ambition, one that this franchise deserves,” and, “We have already begun assembling a purpose-built team, unique in capability and talent, ready and excited to deliver this next chapter with the community.”
That matters because the work is starting before a release date exists. Booty said the new group will be separate from ongoing development and plans for Call of Duty, which suggests a clean handoff rather than a shared pipeline. For players waiting on the next Halo title, the practical read is simple: the franchise is moving, but the timeline is not yet locked in.
Louise O’Connor and June
Louise O’Connor belongs in this story because the restructuring is also about personnel churn, not just studio labels. She started work at Rare in 1999 and left Microsoft in June, after Craig Duncan took on the role of head of Xbox Game Studios in 2024. Their departures sit inside the same reset that sent Halo development to Activision and kept Halo Studios on existing games.
Microsoft has now tied the next Halo game to a new team while trimming around 268 Xbox employees in the same move. That combination points to a narrower, more centralized push around the franchise: one studio building the future entry, another maintaining the live library, and a company cutting staff while it redraws who owns the work. For Halo, the near-term answer is not a launch date. It is a new chain of command.
