Halo Studios cinematic director Josh Daniels has confirmed that he was promoted and laid off within the same week amid news that Activision has now taken over development of the next Halo game.
Xbox’s big restructuring continues this week, with Chief Content Officer Matt Booty announcing 268 layoffs “across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer.”
One of the employees impacted by these layoffs was Josh Daniels, the now-former cinematic director of Halo Studios. He confirmed the news in a post on LinkedIn, where he revealed that he’d just gotten promoted that same week in a brutal turn of events.
“Promoted and laid off in the same week is pretty wild. I’m one of the many hit by the Halo Studios layoffs,” he wrote. “I’ll be taking some offline time today, but very much would love to talk to anyone looking for Cinematic Direction or Production roles. Feel free to get in touch if anything looks like I might be a fit.”
Daniels had been involved with Xbox for just over a decade, having previously lent his talents to the Forza Motorsport games. He was anointed cinematic director at Halo Studios in 2024 and worked on Halo: Campaign Evolved, a title that was met with a lukewarm reception from players upon its release earlier this year.
A cinematic director for a video game oversees a title’s creative vision, narrative direction, and in-game cutscenes, among many other responsibilities. The removal of such an integral role suggests that the next Halo game is taking a drastically different approach than its predecessors, though this wouldn’t be out of left field; one of the more shocking results of Xbox’s shakeup was the news that Activision is now taking the helm of the Halo franchise.
While Halo Studios still exists and will “continue supporting the Halo community and games in-market,” Activision is now leading the charge on the series’ next game. The minds behind Call of Duty making a Halo game is certainly something that wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card, and while opinions are largely mixed, many fans are cautiously optimistic and open for anything to get the franchise out of its current state.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Halo. In the meantime, other studios impacted by Xbox’s big restructuring include Undead Labs, who revealed today that its next game, State of Decay 3, is still in active development and is slated for a closed beta later this year, with a release date set for 2027.