Halo Studios cuts staff a week after Campaign Evolved's launch

Halo Studios has cut staff roughly a week after the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved, according to departure posts several developers published on LinkedIn. The cuts were first reported by Insider Gaming and subsequently covered by Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer and Polygon; the number of people affected has not been disclosed.

Producer Nick Treitman, who worked on Campaign Evolved and describes himself as the product owner of Halo Infinite's social multiplayer pillar, said his role had ended after six and a half years at the studio.

Paul Morris, a scrum master on Campaign Evolved with previous credits on The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and Forza Motorsport 7, wrote that his time at Halo Studios was coming to an end following the game's launch and described the current job market as one of the most difficult the industry has seen. Polygon also identified software engineer Caleb Lawrence, who has marked himself available for work without publishing a departure post.

Contract roles, not confirmed layoffs

Rock Paper Shotgun notes that the LinkedIn profiles of both Treitman and Morris list their positions as contract roles, which leaves open the possibility that Halo Studios declined to renew the agreements rather than laying off permanent staff. Xbox did not respond to Eurogamer's request for comment before publication, and Rock Paper Shotgun said it had also contacted the company.

The departures follow a wider round of cuts across Microsoft's games business. Xbox announced 3,200 job losses last month, with around half taking effect immediately and the remainder spread across the financial year, a schedule Polygon reports runs to July 2027. Studios owned by the company, among them Bethesda, Obsidian, id Software and ZeniMax, were affected in the first wave.

A well-reviewed release

Campaign Evolved was received positively by critics, with Video Games Chronicle awarding it 10 out of 10 and Game Informer 8.5 out of 10. Official sales figures have not been published. Eurogamer cites estimates from Alinea Analytics putting sell-through at about 212,000 copies on Steam and roughly 900,000 across Xbox console and PC, with a slower start on PlayStation at an estimated 351,000 units — a picture complicated by the game's presence on Game Pass.

Whether further cuts at Halo Studios are planned is not known. Remakes of later games in the series have been widely expected to follow Campaign Evolved.