Halo Studios, formerly known as 343 Industries, was one of the studios affected by today’s latest round of Xbox layoffs and corporate restructuring. And at least one developer at the studio experienced a true nightmare situation, getting promoted and then fired in a roughly 48-hour period.
On September 22, Xbox announced more layoffs and studio changes as part of its ongoing corporate “reset.” Over 250 employees were laid off on Tuesday, according to Xbox exec Matt Booty, following a massive round of layoffs in July. The company is also moving Halo under Activision and, as part of this big shift, longtime Halo steward and developer Halo Studios is being cut up and turned into a support team.
One of the many devs who lost their job as part of this latest round of cuts was Cinematic Director Josh Daniels, who explained that he had just been promoted before getting cut.
“Promoted and laid off in the same week is pretty wild,” posted Daniels on LinkedIn. “I’m one of the many hit by the Halo Studios layoffs. 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.”
This is a terrible way to treat your employees, and it also speaks to the fact that these cuts and many of Xbox’s moves in recent months feel chaotic and unplanned. It’s hard for me to believe that all of the individual parts of Xbox, as a corporate entity, are on the same page and have a detailed, long-term plan when it is promoting and then firing people in the same week.
Considering Xbox also laid off a Gears of War dev just a few days after they publicly celebrated finishing up development on the upcoming E-Day, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at this.