IT News from September 26th: Microsoft announced a new round of structural adjustments to its game studios on September 22nd local time, simultaneously laying off 268 employees. This is another major change following the first round of layoffs in July 2026.

According to The Game Business, after the recent reorganization of Xbox, some studios were reallocated under Activision and ZeniMax, which has raised concerns among development teams regarding studio autonomy, project costs, and the fate of future projects.

Among them, the employees of Obsidian (Obsidian) are not satisfied with the studio being incorporated into the Bethesda (Bethesda) system. Sources say that Obsidian previously had a high degree of autonomy and could freely decide on development projects, and this organizational restructuring may change that situation.

Bethesda previously stated that they did not wish for this adjustment to affect the independent operation of Obsidian. However, it is still not possible to confirm whether the actual decision-making authority of Obsidian under the new architecture will change.

Chris DeLing, the editor-in-chief of The Game Business, believes that although the games launched by Obsidian in recent years have received some praise, their sales and player engagement have not met the expectations of Microsoft and the studios. He described this reorganization of Xbox as a process similar to a "reverse acquisition," where Activision and the ZeniMax system, including IP and its distribution resources, are absorbing some of the businesses under Xbox Game Studios.

Meanwhile, Obsidian has confirmed that DLC, which was previously promised to be released in "World Beyond 2," will continue to be developed. However, there are no further plans for subsequent works in this series for now.

Another studio that has received attention is Undead Labs. In July of this year, Microsoft announced that the studio would be acquired by a third party, but in the end, Undead Labs chose to operate independently through arrangements with management and employees, which was accompanied by some layoffs.

Chris Deering revealed that the initial potential acquirer of Undead Labs was the British game developer Splash Damage, but the deal ultimately fell through for unknown reasons. Since then, other transaction options have been discussed, including the appearance of Krafton at one point, but there is no further confirmation at present.

In contrast, the situation with Ninja Theory ( Ninja Theory ) is more severe. That studio was also previously announced to be planning a sale, but the related transaction ultimately did not complete, and Microsoft is now considering closing the studio.

Delin stated that Xbox previously indicated that there were at least two parties interested in Ninja Theory, but all related transactions failed. Two potential investors he approached believed that the operating costs of the studio's team were too high, hence they did not proceed further.

Ninja Theory is currently developing the next project, " Senua ". According to sources from within Xbox Game Studios, the project is progressing well and represents significant improvements over "Hellblade 2". However, if the studio were to close down in the end, there is still uncertainty as to whether the project will be completed and officially released.

Rare This time, there were no large-scale layoffs at the studio, but its organizational structure was adjusted to fit into the Activision system. The studio was previously responsible for projects such as "Thieves' Sea," and it also had other projects in the development stage. Whether these projects will continue in the future will be decided by Activision.

Rare The previous Everwild project has been cancelled, which has resulted in some personnel adjustments. Subsequently, the studio transferred some employees to the "Sea of Thieves" project and reduced the scale of outsourcing in order to mitigate the impact of these personnel changes.

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