Microsoft has announced a new division called Xbox XP, led by newly appointed XP President Kayleen Walters, formerly of Minecraft developer Mojang. The division will focus on four investment areas: Xbox Pictures, Xbox Products, Xbox Places, and Xbox Partnerships. Former Meta, Personio and Reddit executive Maria Angelidou-Smith is also being appointed as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft.
Xbox officially unveiled a new division called XP, focused on movies and TV, to be headed by Lucasfilm veteran and former Mojang president Kayleen Walters. XP covers four areas: Xbox Pictures, Xbox Products, Xbox Places, and Xbox Partnerships, handling film and TV, merchandise, live events and immersive experiences, and creator and brand collaborations. Xbox previously launched Xbox Entertainment Studios in 2012 and shut it down two years later.
Xbox announced a new internal division called XP covering film and television adaptations, consumer products, partnerships, and live experiences. Mojang president Kayleen Walters, who spent eight years at Microsoft on Minecraft and executive produced A Minecraft Movie, will head it. Former Reddit chief product officer Maria Angelidou-Smith replaces her at Mojang.
State of Decay developer Undead Labs has spoken out after rebuying its independence and leaving Xbox last month. Eurogamer reported the statement and linked to further reading.
Hell Let Loose developer Expression opens new studio in Manchester "in response to what's happening in the talent market"
Expression Games, the developer behind the Hell Let Loose franchise and co-developer on Star Wars Galactic Racer, has opened a physical studio in Manchester in response to the needs of its staff and co-development clients. The studio will not mandate office attendance or set working hours, and will continue to support remote working. CEO Errol Ismail said Hell Let Loose: Vietnam has sold a million units since its August release.
Star Wars Zero Company Success Allows Dev to Bring Back Staff https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/10/star-wars-zero-company-success-allows-dev-to-bring-back-staff
Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor has begun returning some furloughed developers to payroll, with staff numbers reportedly back to "more than half" of what they were before the furloughs. Studio boss Greg Foertsch said they hope to "eventually bring as many people back as possible." The furloughs became public through an ongoing lawsuit between Foertsch and former COO Alison Kelly, and some staff reportedly remain unpaid.
Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor begins bringing furloughed staff back
Gravity Well has laid off more than 40 developers after losing its funding. GamesIndustry reported the layoffs and linked to its full story.
Bit Reactor has confirmed it is bringing some furloughed staff back to work to continue supporting Star Wars Zero Company. CEO Greg Foertsch said furloughing roughly 80% of the team before launch, after the studio ran out of money, was a difficult but necessary decision made internally without publisher EA's involvement. It is not yet clear whether everyone furloughed will return, and the studio says more updates on Bit Reactor and Zero Company are coming.
Star Wars: Zero Company maker Bit Reactor is bringing back developers who were furloughed ahead of launch. https://bit.ly/3Tv2efL
The Coalition studio head Mike Crump has addressed reports that staff feared layoffs following the release of Gears of War: E-Day, telling the BBC that layoffs are out of the team's control and they should focus on shipping a great game. Crump said E-Day, which was largely built from scratch, will provide "a great foundation" for future entries, meaning the next game will not take nearly as long to make. Reports had said Xbox laid off story director Juan Vaca two weeks before release, and some staff worried about missing a contracted bonus tied to a Metacritic score, with the game currently at 87.
Fireshine Games has acquired Danish indie studio Fair Games and its open world sandbox title Necesse. Fair Games founder and CEO Mads Skovgaard stays on as managing director and the studio keeps leading the game's direction and updates, while Fireshine handles publishing and porting. Necesse first launched in 2019 and has drawn an estimated 2.5 million players, with plans for continued PC support and additional platform ports.
The Coalition studio head Mike Crump told the BBC the next Gears of War game "will not take nearly as long" to develop, after Gears of War: E-Day took seven years following Gears 5. He declined to give specifics on whether the studio plans layoffs, saying the team focuses on what it can control. E-Day is an Xbox console exclusive and has posted the series' best numbers on Steam, but The Coalition has not announced any future projects.
Gears of War boss says the next game won't take seven years to make as he dances around the question of layoffs
Bit Reactor CEO Greg Foertsch said in a public post on October 7 that some previously furloughed employees have returned to the team to continue supporting Star Wars Zero Company. He called asking team members to step away so close to launch an incredibly difficult decision and thanked fans for their response to the game. Sources told GameFile that Bit Reactor's payrolled staff now account for more than half of what it had before the furloughs, leaving a sizeable chunk of furloughed staff unpaid. Star Wars Zero Company launched in August 2026 and received a nine out of 10 from IGN.
A video report from Rebs Gaming on October 6 claims about 30 developers not included in recent Xbox layoffs are still at Halo Studios under boss Pierre Hintze, working on one last free content update for Halo: Campaign Evolved that would add Firefight and Theater Mode, plus help with December's Halo Fest. The report says this team has no connection to Activision, which now runs the Halo franchise, and that no one is moving to the new team being built there, with the studio possibly shutting down after the event and update. Halo Studios also shared concept art this week, reportedly including ideas for a Halo Infinite sequel such as giant trees in a swamp on Zeta Halo, some of it from former Halo lead Joseph Staten before he left in 2023.
Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has joined Skydance's board as an independent director. Skydance, formed by Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, owns gaming operations including Paramount Games and Warner Bros Games, which a Variety report says will be merged into a single entity. Kotick left Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023 after Microsoft completed its acquisition, following a California lawsuit over workplace misconduct that ended in a $54 million settlement on pay and promotion inequity claims and $47 million set aside for gender discrimination accusations.
Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor begins bringing furloughed staff back
Gravity Well laid off more than 40 developers after losing its funding. GamesIndustry reported the layoffs.
Gravity Well, an independent studio founded by Respawn Entertainment alumni, has let go of the majority of its team after losing its funding, with more than 40 developers affected. Its three leaders said in a LinkedIn post that the funding was lost this summer and that the studio is still searching for a new partner. A much smaller team will carry on as the studio continues to fight for survival, though it described its future as uncertain given the current state of the industry, and asked other companies to consider hiring those affected.
Bit Reactor, the developer of Star Wars Zero Company, has started bringing back staff it furloughed ahead of the game's launch. CEO Greg Foertsch said in a Bluesky statement that the studio began the process of returning more of its team to work this week, without confirming how many people are returning. A person familiar with the situation told Game File that more than half of the pre-furlough team is now back on the payroll, while others remain unpaid; Game File previously reported that furloughed staff kept their employee status but received neither salary nor benefits, and sources said 80% of staff were furloughed before launch.
Bit Reactor, the studio behind Star Wars: Zero Company, began returning some furloughed developers to work this week, CEO Greg Foertsch called it an important step forward. The studio furloughed around 80% of its workforce weeks before launch, and Game File reports more than half of its overall headcount is back on payroll while a fair number of workers remain in limbo. The tactics game sold over 1m copies shortly after release.
The next Halo game will be handled by a completely new team under Activision, while Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, keeps a small team for released titles and lays off 268 people. In the final issue of the Canon Fodder blog, Halo Studios community writer Alex Wakeford shared the first full look at the Endless, called the Xalanyn, children of Abaddon, after the faction was teased in Halo Infinite through the Harbinger. The blog also includes Zeta Halo environments that may have once been planned for Halo Infinite DLC.
Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor said it has started bringing some furloughed staff back to work. CEO Greg Foertsch said around 80% of staff had been sidelined without pay before release because the studio was running out of money, and the return process began this week. According to Game File, the studio's pay-rolled headcount is still less than half of what it was before the furloughs, while Newzoo ranked Zero Company as the sixth-best PC game of August by revenue in six major Western markets.
Bit Reactor, the studio behind Star Wars Zero Company, brought some of its furloughed workers back this week. Most of the studio was furloughed a few weeks before launch, and over half of the staff is now back while the rest remain furloughed.
Some furloughed staff at Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor have returned to work. CEO Greg Foertsch told Game File the studio has started bringing more of its team back but did not give specific percentages or figures. Game File's sources said headcount is now more than half of what it was before the furloughs, and it remains unclear whether more staff will return; a lawsuit involving Foertsch and co-founder Alison Kelly is ongoing.
Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has been finalized, with the combined company taking the name Skydance. Its games division, called Games and Experiences, merges Paramount Games Studio with Warner's internal teams including Avalanche Software, NetherRealm Studios, Rocksteady, TT Games, WB Montreal and WB Boston, and will be led by Tony Driscoll. The board includes former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs, with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair serving as an advisor.
Bit Reactor, the developer of Star Wars Zero Company, has started returning more team members to work this week after furloughing over 80 percent of its staff down to a skeleton crew. Sources estimate the returning employees bring the studio back to more than half of its pre-furlough headcount, though many furloughed workers have not yet been brought back.
Bit Reactor, the studio behind Star Wars Zero Company, said some developers furloughed before the game's launch have begun returning to work, calling the earlier move a response to unexpected business developments outside its control. Game File reports the studio's headcount is back to over half of what it was before launch, while Alinea Analytics estimates the game, made with Respawn Entertainment and EA, has sold over 1 million copies. Bit Reactor did not specify which business developments it meant, and the studio and cofounder Greg Foertsch are in a legal dispute with former chief finance officer Alison Kelly.
The Coalition studio head Mike Crump declined to say whether the studio faces layoffs after shipping Gears of War: E-Day, telling the BBC the team is focused on what it "can control." He said E-Day is a "great foundation" for future Gears titles and that the next game "will not take nearly as long" to make. The studio's story director and others were laid off last month, as Kotaku reported.
Jobs roundup: October | Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott voted chair of UKIE, and Steel City Interactive appoints Murray Pannell as head of publishing https://bit.ly/4y7xgIQ
Wizards of the Coast union expands, demands company stop pushing generative AI
The Coalition studio head Mike Crump said the next Gears of War game "will not take nearly as long" to make, crediting Gears of War: E-Day with providing a "great foundation" for future entries. The previous game, Gears 5, launched in 2019, seven years before E-Day arrived this week on Xbox Series X|S and PC. Crump added that his leadership team has worked together for upwards of 20 years.
The Coalition studio head Mike Crump responded to reports of staff layoff concerns, saying the team should focus on what it can control: shipping a great game. He called Gears of War: E-Day a "great foundation" for future games and said the next game will not take nearly as long to make. Eurogamer had reported internal worry that layoffs would hit The Coalition after E-Day's release, amid nearly 2,000 cuts at Xbox this financial year.
Paramount has completed its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, with both companies now operating under the Skydance name. According to a memo obtained by Variety, Paramount and WBD's games and experiences divisions will merge to oversee projects based on both companies' IP, led by Paramount Games Studio president Tony Driscoll. Paramount Games Studio was established this summer and is led by EVP and head of games Dan Prigg, combining Paramount's IP with Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media.
Bobby Kotick has been named to the board of the newly formed Skydance Corp., which now controls both Paramount and Warner Bros., though no direct management role in either company's gaming divisions was announced. Skydance confirmed that its recently announced Paramount Games Studio will merge with Warner Bros. Games, with the combined division reporting to Tony Driscoll. Big projects in the works include Hogwarts Legacy 2 and a new Batman: Arkham-style game from Rocksteady Studios.
State of Decay 3 developer Undead Labs has left Xbox Game Studios to become an independent, employee-owned studio. Studio boss Philip Holt told The Game Business that nothing went wrong, and that he proposed a management-led buyout which Microsoft accepted, since the studio was close to revenue and could raise the remaining funds for State of Decay 3 itself. He also said the game was announced back in 2020 partly to keep the project and studio on Microsoft's radar during its acquisition spree of publishers like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, with a small team working on it since then.
Undead Labs has spoken out after rebuying its independence and leaving Xbox last month, with studio boss Phillip Holt saying State of Decay 3 needs some changes because of the layoffs, though he does not expect a dramatic scope change. The game is in alpha with a closed group of testers, has a vague 2027 release window, and will still launch on Game Pass day one. Holt also explained the 2020 reveal was meant to keep the studio from being swallowed up or divested, and said the series has reached 25 million players.