Gaming · Wednesday, 23 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

Xbox gives Halo to Activision and moves to close Ninja Theory, the Hellblade studio. 268 more jobs go.

Microsoft's games business moved its most famous series to the Call of Duty publisher, merged several studios and began consultation on closing Ninja Theory after two deals to sell it fell through.

268

more Xbox jobs cut on 22 September

Most of them were at Halo Studios. [3]

about 800 of 3,200

planned Xbox job cuts still to come

Blizzard and inXile have not been touched by the cuts yet. [1]

20 years

of Call of Duty coming out every single year

Its publisher, Activision, now makes Halo too. [3]

deals to sell Ninja Theory that fell through

The studio behind Hellblade now faces closure. [5]

The lead story — what happened

Xbox, Microsoft's games business, cut 268 more jobs on Tuesday. Most were at Halo Studios, the team that has looked after Halo since 2007. [1][3]
Halo itself now goes to Activision, the Call of Duty publisher Microsoft bought in 2023 for almost $70 billion. [1][2]
Activision will make the next Halo with a new team kept separate from Call of Duty. A small group at Halo Studios stays to support the Halo games already on sale. [1][4]
Halo Studios' only release since Halo Infinite in 2021 was this July's remake of the first Halo. GamesIndustry.biz says that slow pace probably counted against it. [1]
Call of Duty has come out every year for 20 years, IGN notes. [3]
Ninja Theory, the studio in Cambridge, England, that made the Hellblade games, faces closure. Two separate deals to sell it fell through. [5][7]
Its staff are now in a consultation, which UK law requires before mass job cuts and which lasts at least 30 days. [6]
Ninja Theory was making Senua, a new Hellblade game shown in June. Game File reported that Xbox revealed it partly to help attract a buyer. [5][8]
Other teams were folded together. Rare and World's Edge move under Activision, Obsidian moves under Bethesda, and Forza's two studios, Playground and Turn 10, become one. [1][10]
Arkane, maker of Dishonored, is still in talks over its future, and Xbox expects those to last until the end of the year. [4]
Xbox says it is about three-quarters through the 3,200 job cuts it announced in July. GamesIndustry.biz counts roughly 800 still to come. [2][1]
Xbox chief Asha Sharma said in July that platform teams had grown 40% this console generation while players and playing time fell. [11]
Activision itself changed its Call of Duty plans after two Black Ops games in a row, when the second sold much worse than expected. [1]
Across social media, many players reacted with anger at studios Xbox had bought being closed or merged. [12]

Jobs Xbox said in July it would cut3,200 jobs

Cut in July1,600 jobs

Cut on 22 September268 jobs

Xbox says it is three-quarters done. The studios it sold count toward that, which is why these two rounds of cuts add up to less.

Who is involved

Asha Sharma

Xbox's new chief executive; she began the cuts in July, saying Xbox had spread itself too thin
Matt Booty

Xbox's chief content officer, in charge of its studios; he announced Tuesday's changes
Activision

the Call of Duty publisher Microsoft owns; it now also runs Rare and will make the next Halo
Ninja Theory

the Cambridge studio behind Hellblade; it faces closure after two sale deals collapsed
Arkane

the studio behind Dishonored; talks over its future run to the end of the year

How it unfolded

2007 343 Industries, later Halo Studios, is set up to run Halo [1]
2021 Halo Infinite, the studio's last new Halo game, comes out [1]
June 2026 Xbox shows Senua, Ninja Theory's next Hellblade game [5]
July 2026 Xbox announces 3,200 job cuts and cuts 1,600 at once [11]
22 Sept 268 more jobs go and Halo moves to Activision [1]
6 Oct an all-Xbox staff meeting on the changes [7]

Where this points

Watch where the last 800 or so cuts fall; GamesIndustry.biz notes Blizzard and inXile have not yet been touched, and Xbox meets all its staff on 6 October. [1][7]

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Xbox shrinking its own studios High↑

Xbox cut 268 more jobs and moved to close Ninja Theory. [1] A Bloomberg reporter says layoffs at Blizzard, which Xbox also owns, are close. [15] A leak reported by IGN says Game Pass may stop adding new games on their launch day. [16]

Big owners taking in more Building↑

Activision now runs Rare and will make the next Halo game. [1] Paramount settled with 12 US states, clearing its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. [29] That company owns Warner Bros Games, whose studios include NetherRealm. [35]

Grand Theft Auto 6 filling the autumn High↑

Rockstar put a 34-song album of music made for the game up for pre-order. [24] Giant letters for the game are being lifted onto a Miami arena by helicopter. [26] Take-Two, Rockstar's owner, is pulling leaked footage of old Rockstar work off YouTube. [27]

Valve's new machines still being finished Steady→

A Valve update more than doubled how fast its Steam Frame headset charges from flat. [37] Valve is testing a new way to stream PC games to other screens at home. [39] The repair site iFixit published guides for fixing Valve's Steam Machine. [40]

The rest of the day

13 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
State of Decay's makers now own their studio

Undead Labs, the studio behind the zombie survival series State of Decay, has left Xbox and is now independent and owned by its own staff. [13][14] Microsoft published the first State of Decay in 2013 and bought the studio in 2018. [13] State of Decay 3 is in an early test build, with a closed test for invited players planned before the end of 2026. [14] It is due in 2027 on Xbox, PC and PlayStation, and on Game Pass on launch day, with a new publisher. [13][1]

Why it matters — Of the five studios Xbox put up for sale in July, three have now left in one piece. [11][1] Ninja Theory faces closure and Arkane is still in talks. [4]
03
Blizzard layoffs reported to be close

Jason Schreier, a Bloomberg reporter who wrote a book about Blizzard, said on a podcast that layoffs at Blizzard are coming soon. [15] Blizzard makes World of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft, and Xbox owns it. [15][9] It has just held BlizzCon, its own fan show, where it announced Diablo 5, a StarCraft shooter and a new World of Warcraft game. [15] A senior Blizzard leader emailed staff that the World of Warcraft team is not affected by Tuesday's announcements, and Xbox confirmed the email is real. [2]

Why it matters — Schreier says the distant release dates Blizzard gave, as late as 2030, are about proving it will ship on time. [15] Earlier delays to Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 led Activision's former boss, Bobby Kotick, to cut costs at Blizzard. [15] GamesIndustry.biz lists Blizzard among the parts of Xbox not yet touched by the cuts. [1]
04
Game Pass may stop launching new games on day one

A leak reported by IGN says Microsoft plans to stop putting its new games on Game Pass on the day they come out, across every price level. [16] Game Pass is Xbox's monthly subscription, which lets players pick from a large library of games for one fee. The same leak describes a cheaper tier with adverts. [16] It also says online play, cloud streaming and family sharing would be sold as extras. [16] IGN calls it a rumour, and Microsoft has not announced it. [16]

Why it matters — On Tuesday Xbox still promised that State of Decay 3 will be on Game Pass the day it launches. [1] So the leak and Microsoft's own words do not yet fit together.
05
EA's FC 27 football game goes on sale

EA Sports FC 27, EA's yearly football game, opened early access on 18 September. [17] It goes fully on sale on 25 September on seven kinds of machine, from the PlayStation 4 to the Nintendo Switch 2. [19] An RB Leipzig esports player said its new passing system gives less automatic help, so experienced players must relearn habits. [17] IGN's early review praises new tactics tools but finds the computer-controlled players still move badly. [18]

Why it matters — The biggest new feature is The Grounds, an open-world area where players meet before matches. [18] IGN points out that NBA 2K has had one since 2014, and says EA's version solves a problem nobody had. [18]
06
Silent Hill: Townfall comes out

Silent Hill: Townfall, a horror game from Konami and the studio Screen Burn, launches on 24 September. [21][20] Buyers of the more expensive deluxe edition could start on 22 September. [20] Players are Simon Ordell, exploring the fog-covered island town of St. Amelia with 1990s equipment. [21] Like earlier Silent Hill games it has several endings, and IGN has timed how long it takes to finish. [41]

Why it matters — It is played in first person, through the hero's own eyes, which IGN's preview says brings players closer to the fear. [22] It lands two months before Grand Theft Auto 6, which comes out on 19 November. [24]
07
Grand Theft Auto 6 gets an album before the game

Rockstar Games put Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album up for pre-order on 17 September. [23] It holds 34 songs written for the game, and six can be streamed already. [24] A double CD costs $20, a double vinyl $50 and a limited vinyl $125. [25] The limited vinyl had already sold out on the album's UK site. [24]

Double CD$20
Double vinyl$50
Limited vinyl$125
The three versions of the Grand Theft Auto 6 album on sale, in US dollars.

Why it matters — The album will exist on a disc, while shops are listing the game itself as a download code in a box. [23][25] Rockstar is taking orders for the music two months before anyone can play the game.
08
Grand Theft Auto 6 letters go up on a Miami arena

Rockstar and its owner, Take-Two, are lifting giant letters by helicopter onto the roof of the Kaseya Center, a basketball arena in Miami. [26] When finished they will spell Welcome to Vice City, the game's fictional city. [26][23] WLRN, a Miami news outlet, reported the deal is worth almost $1 million to Miami-Dade County. [26] The county plans to spend it on land behind the arena for public use. [26]

Why it matters — The county sheriff and one commissioner object, saying the game glorifies crime and killing police. [26] The commissioner wants the money spent on gaps in the sheriff's budget instead. [26]
09
Take-Two pulls leaked Rockstar files offline

Files from Grand Theft Auto 5 surfaced online last week. [27] They were reportedly taken in the 2022 hack of Rockstar that also leaked the first footage of Grand Theft Auto 6. [27] They include plans for a scrapped expansion set in Liberty City and a very early version of the new game's map. [27] Take-Two, Rockstar's owner, is having videos and images of the material taken down from YouTube. [27]

Why it matters — People who post the material risk copyright strikes against their channels. [27] IGN expects security around Grand Theft Auto 6 to be at its tightest, with the game two months away. [27]
10
Take-Two's boss says PC matters more, not when

At Take-Two's yearly shareholder meeting, chief executive Strauss Zelnick was asked about Grand Theft Auto 6 on PC. [28] He said Take-Two aims to launch on every platform with a meaningful audience, and that PC is becoming more important to the company. [28] The game launches on 19 November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only, with no PC date. [28] He also called it a single-player experience when asked about online play. [28]

Why it matters — PC Gamer notes that in May Zelnick said PC can bring in up to half a big game's sales. [28] The year's biggest game still skips PC at launch.
11
Paramount clears the way to buy Warner Bros

Paramount Skydance settled with California and 11 other US states that sued to block its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. [34][29] Warner Bros Discovery owns HBO, CNN and Harry Potter. [32] Its games arm, Warner Bros Games, owns studios such as NetherRealm. [35] Paramount agreed to release at least 30 cinema films a year and pay $30 million for each one it falls short. [31][34] It also agreed to a board of journalists to protect the independence of CNN and CBS News. [30] The FCC, the US communications regulator, let foreign investors back the deal, but without votes. [33]

Why it matters — The settlement terms filed in court cover films, cinemas and news, and none of them mentions video games. [31] What Paramount plans for Warner Bros Games has not been set out.
12
A new Injustice fighting game leaks again

Injustice 3, a DC superhero fighting game that NetherRealm has not announced, surfaced again this week. [35] A stunt performer's online CV named the game and listed motion-capture work as Supergirl and Batwoman, before those lines were removed. [35] It follows a leak of player tests the week before. [35] NetherRealm, which also makes Mortal Kombat, last released Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023. [35]

Why it matters — Eurogamer guesses a release in 2027, based on how often NetherRealm puts out games. [35] It would be NetherRealm's first new game since 2023, and Warner Bros Games is part of the company Paramount is buying. [35][29]
13
Valve updates its new headset and opens a porting tool

A Valve update more than doubled how fast its new Steam Frame headset charges from flat. The Verge measured about 8 watts before and about 20 after. [37] Valve also made Lepton, its tool for moving headset games built for Android onto the Steam Frame, free for anyone to use and change. [36] Developers have already used it to bring over Meta Quest games. [36] Guy Godin, who makes the Virtual Desktop app, says he will try to port it, though Valve sent him no headset. [38]

Charging a flat Steam Frame, before the update8 watts
After the update20 watts
How fast a flat Steam Frame headset charges, as measured by The Verge. After the update it read 19 to 21 watts.

Why it matters — Games ported from Meta's Quest headsets give Steam Frame owners more to play. [36] The Verge had found charging slow, and the fix came in Valve's 0.3.0 update. [37]
14
Repair guides and faster streaming for Valve's PC

iFixit, a website that publishes repair instructions, now has guides for Valve's Steam Machine, a gaming PC. [40] They cover jobs from replacing the main circuit board to cleaning the cooler. [40] Separately, Valve is testing Pyrowave, a new way to stream games from a PC to another screen in the same home. [39] It uses five to ten times more data than other methods, and uses the graphics card to cut delay. [39]

Why it matters — Both give owners more from hardware they already have. [40][39] Pyrowave is in Steam's test version on Windows, macOS and Linux, and Valve warns it may not help every setup. [39]

02 Lesson why it matters

Why a shrinking company gives its biggest game to the team that ships every year

Xbox took Halo from a studio whose only release since 2021 was a remake, and gave it to Activision, whose Call of Duty has come out every year for 20 years.

The twist

When an owner must cut, it keeps the teams whose next release date it can count on. A team that made a much-loved game slowly looks riskier than one that ships every autumn.

The picture

1New releases from Halo Studios since Halo Infinite in 2021

20Years in a row a new Call of Duty has come out

Halo moved from the team on the left to the publisher on the right. Both numbers come from the briefing above.

How it works

An owner has to cut costs by a set date
It cannot know which teams will earn money soon
A team that ships a game every year is the easiest bet
So famous games and other teams move under it
Slower teams shrink, merge, or are sold

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Blizzard layoffs reported to be close

Blizzard gave release dates years ahead to show it will ship when promised, because slipped dates had brought cost cuts before.
EA's FC 27 football game goes on sale

EA's football game arrives on its usual date every autumn, which makes it the kind of earner an owner can plan around.
State of Decay's makers now own their studio

Undead Labs was one of the teams Xbox chose to let go, and its next game is still in testing until 2027.

Where you've seen this

Car makers

a company cutting models keeps the car that sells every year and drops the admired one that sells slowly

Book publishers

a publisher trimming its list keeps the writer who delivers a book every year

Supermarkets

a shop short on shelf space keeps what sells every week over what a few people love

The catch

A yearly team can stall too: Activision changed its own Call of Duty plans after two Black Ops games in a row, when the second sold badly.

And the whole of it

The people cut on Tuesday did not choose which kind of team they worked for. Players who buy a new Call of Duty or FC every autumn help make the yearly teams look safe, and none of them sees the slower studio that loses out.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

Microsoft is shrinking Xbox by moving its best-known games to the teams that release most often, above all Activision. [1][3] Halo went to Activision on Tuesday. Ninja Theory, whose next game was planned for 2027, faces closure because no buyer stayed. [1][6]

Why it works on us — Saying the cuts are three-quarters done makes them sound nearly over, while about 800 jobs are still to go. [2][1]

Who gains

Activision — It takes over Halo, Rare and World's Edge. [1] It also escaped job cuts in both rounds so far. [9]
Undead Labs' staff — They now own their studio, and State of Decay 3 still reaches Game Pass subscribers on launch day. [13][1]
Paramount and its chair, David Ellison — The settlement lets Paramount buy Warner Bros Discovery without selling its cable channels, in return for promises on films and news. [29]
Miami-Dade County — The Grand Theft Auto 6 arena sign is reportedly worth almost $1 million to it, meant for public land behind the arena. [26]
Steam Machine owners — iFixit's guides let them replace parts and clean the machine themselves. [40]

Who pays

Ninja Theory's staff in Cambridge — Two deals to sell their studio fell through, so they are now in consultation on its closure. [5][6]
Halo Studios' staff — Most of Tuesday's 268 job cuts fell on them, and their series moved to another publisher. [3][1]
Blizzard's staff — A Bloomberg reporter says layoffs there are close, days after BlizzCon. [15]
Game Pass subscribers, if the leak is right — New games would arrive later, and online play, cloud play and family sharing would cost extra. [16]
People posting Rockstar's leaked files — Take-Two is having their videos removed, and they risk copyright strikes. [27]
The Miami-Dade sheriff's office — A commissioner wanted the advertising money to fill its budget gaps, and it is going to public land instead. [26]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

What happens to Senua, Ninja Theory's Hellblade game.

Xbox says it is still exploring other paths for the studio, and nobody has said whether the game survives a closure. [3][6]
02

Who backed out of the two deals to buy Ninja Theory, and why.

Matt Booty said only that two separate agreements fell through, with no names and no reasons. [5]
03

Where the last 800 or so Xbox job cuts will fall.

A Bloomberg reporter says Blizzard layoffs are close. [15] A Blizzard leader's email says the World of Warcraft team is not affected by Tuesday's changes. [2] Neither says what comes next.
04

Who owns Undead Labs now, and who will publish State of Decay 3.

The studio calls itself employee-owned, while Kotaku writes that it was sold back to its management. [13][8] Xbox names no new publisher. [1]
05

Whether Game Pass really stops launching new games on day one.

The claim comes from a leak IGN calls a rumour. [16] Xbox itself still promised State of Decay 3 on Game Pass at launch. [1]
06

What Paramount plans for Warner Bros Games.

The settlement terms filed in court cover films, cinemas and news, and none of them mentions video games. [31]
07

The day the Grand Theft Auto 6 album comes out.

IGN gives 20 November, the day after the game. [23] Eurogamer says 19 November, the same day as the game. [24]
08

When, or whether, Grand Theft Auto 6 comes to PC.

Take-Two's chief said PC matters more and more, and gave no date. [28]

04 Hope carry this

Undead Labs, the studio behind State of Decay, left Xbox this week as an independent company owned by its own staff. Its next game is still being made, with a test for invited players planned before the end of the year.

Also true today

iFixit published guides for repairing Valve's Steam Machine, from replacing the main circuit board to cleaning the cooler.
Valve made Lepton, its tool for moving headset games onto its Steam Frame, open for any developer to use and change.
A Valve update more than doubled how fast the Steam Frame headset charges from flat, from about 8 watts to about 20.