33
votes
Xbox: continuing our reset [update on Xbox game studio closures]
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- Title
- Continuing Our Reset
- Authors
- Joe Skrebels, XBOX Wire Editor-in-Chief
- Published
- Sep 22 2026
- Word count
- 421 words
Never in a thousand years did I think we'd get Call of Halo.
Obsidian being under Bethesda feels like a slap after Interplay/Black Isle couldn't keep Fallout, and Black Isle reformed mostly as Obsidian, but it makes sense, as long as Obsidian can keep doing its own thing when they aren't stuck babysitting Bethesda properties. They had finally gotten to a point of not doing licensed IPs.
I'm surprised at only 268 more layoffs, sounds like management head cutting and redundancies as they lock in the new structure. Not that I like any layoffs, my heart goes out to these folks entering an already strained gaming labor market.
Halo is going to be so bad
Nah I honestly trust Activision much more than 343 studios. They've had over 10 years with the franchise and been an utter disaster without hope of improvement.
That's... fair. It definitely can't get worse.
I'm not so sure. That's what I thought after Halo 5, and then we got Infinite. At any rate, if it can get worse, Activision would be my best bet to make it happen.
I thought general consensus was that Infinite was better? Never played the single player of either game, but I enjoyed what I played of both multiplayers.
Infinite was good. Campaign gameplay was excellent, story was very good (though with a very forgettable primary antagonist) and a great recovery given what they were left to work with after Halo 5. Multiplayer was also good, it just suffered from the same problems that all games have when you shoehorn live service mechanics into them. The custom games/forge scene was incredible, if I was still into forge like I was back in Reach/4, I would have spent hundreds of hours just in that (we can make custom campaign missions and firefight maps for crying out loud!). Overall, Infinite was by far the most "Halo" Halo game 343 made.
I'm guessing we're not getting any more small passion projects like Pentiment out of Obsidian in the foreseeable future. Until now I had been holding out hope for a Tyranny 2 getting made once fortunes were on the upswing, or at least another trip to Eora at some stage. Oh well, at least their Fallout should be interesting.
I don't think things are particularly bleak for Obsidian's IPs, Bethesda just dropped the ball in a big way with Starfield taking so long, then doing nothing with the main IPs that are known moneymakers. Currently it's a huge forced change, but the team set up for the new Fallout game has a proven track record with the franchise.
I find it a bit frustrating that they're finally in a position to build and develop their own IP instead of depending on licensing, and they are forced to do Fallout, but, again, have confidence that they'll do well. A New Vegas-depth RPG on Starfield's skeleton will definitely play great. We got two Grounded games, PoE, Avowed, and two Outer Worlds, and I don't think Xbox is going to let Obsidian wither as a vestigial limb of Bethesda.
I think once things are at a normal cadence, Obsidian should be back to what they do best, hopefully, but only time will tell.
I do agree that we'll likely not see another Pentiment, but that was also very much a product of that point in time. Josh Sawyer commented that he didn't think it would sell well, but could potentially find a market on GamePass, which it definitely did, as well as the relatively strong sales for a game designed for a niche audience.
There’s a part of me hoping that Microsoft is planning on having Obsidian take over Bethesda from the inside.
They said they're ¾ of the way through restructuring, so more cuts are expected. Awful for morale and productivity.