Halo Studios is practically erased after a significant number of layoffs at Xbox, turning it now into a tiny support studio. Rather, the steward of future Halo games at Xbox is Activision, with both that game and Call of Duty under the same umbrella. Now, fans are wondering what happens from here.

There is little mourning about Halo being moved out of Halo Studios, which has struggled with the franchise for the better part of 15 years since Halo 4 in 2012. Its last game, Halo Infinite in 2021, pretty much lost the plot altogether, and Master Chief has been MIA ever since. Now, no more. Here’s what Activision says about its plans going forward via Game File :

“For Halo , our goal is clear: make the greatest Halo game ever, worthy of its universe and legacy, while staying true to what made players love it in the first place. It is a bold ambition, one that this franchise deserves. We have already begun assembling a purpose-built team, unique in capability and talent, ready and excited to deliver this next chapter with the community.”

Most are skeptical that Activision is going to make a better Halo game than Bungie, but the goal is to at least do a lot better than 343/Halo Studios has. But a big question is…from what point is this starting, exactly?

343/Halo Studios made three mainline Halo games, 4, 5 and Infinite , forging their own storyline in the post- Halo 3 era (Bungie’s last game, Reach , is a prequel). It seems likely, if not very highly recommended, that Activision is going to reboot Halo now that it has its hands on it.

No, it does not seem wise to reboot Halo completely from Combat Evolved . You do not want to just remake those games or dramatically alter fundamental lore. But the obvious move is to start from Halo 3 and essentially do a do-over of the 343 years, which took things in strange, often bad directions. Picking things up in the very awkward place that Infinite ended seems like a worse plan than just erasing the games that Halo fans generally did not like.

It’s possible this could be deemed too confusing, and a reboot could just be Chief moving on from Infinite and heading into a wildly different storyline without taking much of the 343 era into account, but I think things went so sideways from 4 to Infinite that a clean slate is better. And I don’t think the 343 games have enough fan devotion for all that many people to care if this happened.

The bad news in all of this is that despite this new move, we are roughly in the same position for when a new Halo game will arrive. It has been five years since Halo Infinite, and making a mainline Halo game in 2026 will probably take 4-5 years, given that they clearly have to start from scratch. Hopefully they will pick the right spot to begin.

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