{"id":14505,"date":"2026-09-22T23:41:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T20:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=14505"},"modified":"2026-09-23T03:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:25:11","slug":"halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Halo Studios Cinematic Director Promoted and Laid Off Within the Same Week as Xbox&#8217;s Brutal Restructuring Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">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.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Xbox\u2019s big restructuring continues this week, with Chief Content Officer Matt Booty announcing 268 layoffs &#8220;across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">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\u2019d just gotten promoted that same week in a brutal turn of events.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Halo: Campaign Evolved vs The Master Chief Collection (Xbox Ally)<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Halo: Campaign Evolved, 720p, Very Low preset, FSR Low, 30 fps\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues.gif\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cPromoted and laid off in the same week is pretty wild. I&#8217;m one of the many hit by the Halo Studios layoffs,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI&#8217;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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">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.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">A cinematic director for a video game oversees a title\u2019s 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\u2019t be out of left field; one of the more shocking results of Xbox\u2019s shakeup was the news that Activision is now taking the helm of the Halo franchise. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">While Halo Studios still exists and will \u201ccontinue supporting the Halo community and games in-market,\u201d Activision is now leading the charge on the series\u2019 next game. The minds behind Call of Duty making a Halo game is certainly something that wasn\u2019t on anyone\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">For now, we\u2019ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Halo. In the meantime, other studios impacted by Xbox\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-4218469134 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Virginia Glaze Avatar\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues.jpg\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><span class=\"stack jsx-2959124702 jsx-702910195 author-sign-off-header\">Virginia Glaze<\/p>\n<p>News Editor<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-1220387432\"><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Virginia (she\/her) is IGN\u2019s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she\u2019s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at <\/em>@TheeMissGlaze<em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues.webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues.webp\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues.webp\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/halo-studios-cinematic-director-promoted-and-laid-off-within-the-same-week-as-xboxs-brutal-restructuring-continues.webp\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-14505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","tag-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14507,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions\/14507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}