Activision Takes Over Halo, Xbox Fires 268 - Kinda Funny Games Daily 09.22.26

Tim Gettys (0:00)

Today's gaming news stories include Activision is taking over Halo, Obsidian is now under Bethesda, and more restructures and layoffs under Xbox. We'll have all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily.

What's up and welcome to a super stuffed jam packed episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily for Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026 Of course, I'm your host Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by a motley crew, a bigger crew than normal. Instead of doing our Games Daily and Gamescast, this news is big enough. It's going to be a double sized episode for all of the discussion that this crew right now will have. That crew consists of Blessing Adeoye Jr. Hello, Tim. Greg Miller.

Greg Miller (0:48)

Hello, Tim.

Tim Gettys (0:48)

And Snow Bike. Mike. Hi, Tim. Hi, Mike. How you doing?

Mike Minotti (0:52)

Tim, I'm great. You know, I told you this morning, I'm back. Where's the Xbox on?

Greg Miller (0:56)

Why didn't you bring the Xbox on to work?

Mike Minotti (0:58)

No, unfortunately, we don't like the beam for a day like this. This is the day you don't get to light the beam. And Tim, it's another one of those ex-cast days where it's, how do we fix Halo?

Greg Miller (1:08)

Yeah, it sure is.

Tim Gettys (1:10)

It sure is. They have some ideas.

Mike Minotti (1:13)

Yeah.

Tim Gettys (1:13)

We will talk about those.

Greg Miller (1:14)

Yeah, they got some ideas.

Tim Gettys (1:16)

We'll talk all about that throughout the show here. Remember, if you're watching live, be part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com/kind of Funny Games. And we couldn't do this without our producers over on Patreon. So thank you to Omega Buster, Delaney, the Psalm Twining and Michael Pisa Vento. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report Slash Topic of the show.

We have four stories today.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (1:44)

A Beaker's Desert.

Tim Gettys (1:48)

Story number one.

Continuing our reset, this comes from Matt Booty at Xbox. This message was just sent to the Team Xbox Employees Globally. Team, I'm writing to share several updates as part of the Xbox reset outlined earlier this year. First, we're eliminating 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer.

The actions completed since July, inclusive of the studio divestitures, bring us roughly three quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring.

I'm deeply grateful for what our colleagues have built, and I know how difficult today will be for those leaving and the teams around them. Second, we are reorganizing our studios. The goal is to strengthen our franchises and games by operating fewer business units, aligning groups that already work closely together, and focusing our publishing expertise. Activision will expand its remit to Worlds Edge as well as Rare. 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. A small team at Halo Studios will continue supporting the Halo community and games in market. God, we could stop there and talk about all that. But I want to get through everything, and then we'll go back and kind of like tackle everything bit by bit. But Bethesda will expand its remit to include Obsidian, which will continue its current projects including Grounded as well as the new Fallout project in collaboration with Bethesda Game Studios. King will expand its remit to include Microsoft Casual Games, uniting our two global leaders in casual game design and live operations. Playground and Turn 10 will come together as one studio focused on the Forza and Fable franchises. These two studios have been creative and franchise partners for over a decade, and today's changes will formally move their work into one team.

Third, an update on our studio Divestures. In August, Compulsion and Double Fine returned to management with their IP, back catalogs and runway funding. Undead Labs has now successfully transitioned on similar terms, and with a new publisher will release Data Decay 3 Day 1 on Game Pass. Unfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through. We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward. Consultation with Arcane remains underway and is expected to continue through the end of the year. Today, we focus. Sorry. Today, our focus should be on supporting those affected and treating one another with care and respect. I will spend time with our studios over the next week at our October 6th Town Hall. We'll come together as an all Xbox team to reflect on our progress and look ahead to one of the strongest game lineups in our history. Matt, Greg, yeah, give me your top level thoughts.