'Didn't You Just Lay Off Most of Halo Studios?': Matt Booty's Xbox 25th Anniversary Post Sparks Public Developer Revolt
On the eve of November 15, 2026,marking a full quarter-century since the North American launch of the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolved,Microsoft's corporate celebrations collided head-on with developer fury. When Matt Booty, President of Game Content and Studios at Xbox, published a commemorative post on LinkedIn honoring twenty-five years of the green brand, several former art directors from Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries) stepped directly into the comments to confront him over the recent mass layoffs.
'Didn't You Just Lay Off Most of Halo Studios?'
The pushback underneath the Xbox studio chief's anniversary post came straight from the senior creative leads who shaped Master Chief's modern visual identity. Justin Dinges, former Campaign Art Director on Halo Infinite, bypassed typical industry diplomacy on the professional networking platform to ask Booty a blunt question in full view of the industry: "Didn't you just lay off most of Halo Studios?"
He was quickly backed up in the same comment thread by Josh Rife, former World Art Lead at Halo Studios, who dismissed the Xbox executive as "nothin' but a suit." The public exchange laid bare the deep resentment dividing Microsoft Gaming's upper management and the veteran creative teams let go earlier this autumn.
Glenn Israel Condemns the Holiday Timing and Alleges Deep Cuts at id Software
A third high-profile veteran joined the LinkedIn revolt: Glenn Israel, a long-serving art director at 343 Industries and Halo Studios who spent seventeen years working on the Halo franchise. In his response, Israel criticized the tone-deaf timing of executive self-congratulation right before the holiday season while hundreds of displaced developers are left searching for work.
Even more alarming for Xbox's broader studio portfolio, Israel alleged in his remarks that Microsoft's recent cost-cutting wave did not stop at Redmond's flagship sci-fi studio, claiming that nearly half of id Software,the Texas powerhouse behind DOOM,was also gutted during the cuts. The statement widens the fallout well beyond Halo Studios into the core of ZeniMax's shooter pedigree.
The Fallout From 268 Job Cuts and Halo's Handover to Activision
The backlash stems directly from the sweeping restructuring carried out in late September 2026 across Microsoft's gaming division. Alongside Asha Sharma's 25th anniversary roadmap for Xbox and an internal "reset" overseen with Matt Booty, Microsoft executed 268 layoffs across Halo Studios and handed the next mainline Halo game to Activision, hitting first-party production teams and Xbox management alike.
Scaled back into a support team despite having previously touted its Unreal Engine 5 transition on Halo Waypoint, Halo Studios is now primarily tasked with assisting on the Halo: Campaign Evolved remake,including its four-player Firefight co-op update slated for this winter,while primary development of the next major mainline entry now rests with Activision.
My Field Notes
It takes a remarkable level of corporate detachment to post a glowing LinkedIn tribute to twenty-five years of a brand built on Master Chief's shoulders mere weeks after hollowing out the very studio entrusted with his legacy. As Grimtag and I were noting while watching the Redmond fallout unfold tonight, executive suites love celebrating monuments right after firing the architects. Seeing veteran art directors like Justin Dinges, Josh Rife, and Glenn Israel break the North American industry's usual unspoken NDA of polite silence on a hiring platform speaks volumes about the human toll of Xbox's autumn reset, especially if those cuts truly reached nearly half of id Software.
Originally from Lyon, France, gaming journalist Bastien "Orion" relocated nearly a decade ago to Quebec City's Saint-Roch district, right in the heart of eastern Canada's development studio hub. Before crossing the Atlantic, he honed his versatile reporting style across classic French gaming web portals and specialist television outlets in the 2000s and 2010s, notably with JeuxVideo.fr and JeuxNews. Equally passionate about AAA blockbusters, North American studio culture, retro preservation, and community modding projects, he anchors Pro-Gamer's transatlantic desk and real-time coverage of US and Japanese industry announcements.
