{"id":87314,"date":"2026-09-23T21:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=87314"},"modified":"2026-09-23T21:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:00:02","slug":"halo-co-creator-reacts-to-franchise-moving-to-activision-shocked-but-not-entirely-surprised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=87314","title":{"rendered":"Halo Co-Creator Reacts To Franchise Moving To Activision: \u201cShocked But Not Entirely Surprised\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Halo-CE.jpg?w=300\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Halo franchise has a new home at Activision, as Microsoft announced sweeping changes to its Xbox games division this week. As\u00a0various Xbox\u00a0studios are being consolidated under new branches of the company, Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto has\u00a0commented on the\u00a0series&#8217; move to Activision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Shocked but not entirely surprised by the news of the Halo Studios closure and moving the franchise to an Activision team,&#8221; Lehto wrote online. &#8220;Wishing the best for all the developers who were affected by this decision. I, as well as you all, am eager to learn more about what\u2019s next.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While it&#8217;s still early days, Activision has confirmed that its Halo game will be developed by a &#8220;new, purpose-built team,&#8221;&nbsp;separate from&nbsp;its army of studios responsible for annual Call of Duty games. Halo Studios will still exist, but in a reduced capacity following a fresh wave of layoffs. Going forward, the studio will be focused on supporting the Halo games that have already been released and the wider Halo community.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Halo: Campaign Evolved Review\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7LimYD3Ycwo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Halo franchise has had several ups and downs, with 2026 also marking the series&#8217; 25th anniversary. Previously, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had commented on how Microsoft wants to revive Halo as a tentpole franchise, while Lehto spoke about just how expensive it would be to pull off that resurrection. Lehto also called out the Halo: Combat Evolved remake for being\u00a0&#8220;too heavy-handed\u2013pandering to a new era of players with 0% attention span,&#8221; and he suggested that remaking Halo would require a radical fresh start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the former Halo developer put it, the lore around the game has become &#8220;too convoluted,&#8221; and he believes his idea for a &#8220;darker&#8221; and &#8220;more grounded&#8221; Halo game would be the\u00a0right way to reboot the series, even if it ends up alienating some players. &#8220;PvP would be the brains, PvE the heart and soul. It would not be &#8216;everyone&#8217;s&#8217; Halo,&#8221; Lehto wrote online in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other news related to the latest happenings of the &#8220;Xbox reset,&#8221; Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios have merged; things are looking dire for Ninja Theory; and State of Decay 3 developer\u00a0Undead Labs\u00a0has found a new publisher&#8211;while also being forced to start layoffs.<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/halo-co-creator-reacts-to-franchise-moving-to-activision-shocked-but-not-entirely-surprised\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Halo franchise has a new home at Activision, as Microsoft announced sweeping changes to its Xbox games division this week. As\u00a0various Xbox\u00a0studios are being&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4124,3330,2800,2796,2954,10378,501,8583],"class_list":["post-87314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-activision","tag-cocreator","tag-franchise","tag-halo","tag-moving","tag-reacts","tag-shocked","tag-surprised","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}