All The Major Xbox Changes Microsoft Announced Today: Layoffs, Halo Goes To Activision, And Lots More

Microsoft's "reset" of the Xbox business continued today with the announcement of another giant wave of changes and restructuring to help the business become more successful in the future, or at least that's the plan. The major moves included more layoffs, the planned closure of another developer, and a significant shakeup for the Halo franchise, among others. Here's everything we learned: Layoffs To begin with, Xbox boss Matt Booty said there will be a further 268 layoffs that affect Halo Studios, other first-party developers, and the Xbox Game Studios management and central functions team. This latest round of cuts comes after Microsoft laid off 1,600 Xbox developers in July, including the studios it divested of. With these cuts, Microsoft is now about 3/4 of the way through its planned restructuring of Xbox, so more changes are still to come. "I am deeply grateful for what our colleagues have built, and I know how difficult today will be for those leaving and the teams around them," Booty said. Halo goes to Activision Another major change is that Activision is expanding its remit to now cover developers Rare and World's Edge. Additionally, Activision is making the next Halo gam…