Following recent reports of Halo Studios undergoing layoffs shortly after the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved, the studio has seemingly decided to offer some clarification on the matter. According to GamesBeat, the studio is only letting go of the contractors it had hired to work on the project. Rather, no layoffs for the internal staff are apparently planned.
“No layoffs have occurred at Halo Studios,” said a source, according to the report. “There are often external contractor shifts that happen after a game ships. This is what people are noticing.”
Reports of layoffs at Halo Studios popped up earlier this week when producer Nick Treitman confirmed that he had been let go through a LinkedIn post. “After 6.5 years working on Halo and dodging just as many rounds of layoffs – it has finally caught up to me. I have nothing but love for Halo and the folks at the studio; this is just a tough reality in the gaming industry right now,” he wrote. A scrum master at the studio, Paul Morris, also confirmed that he was among those let go following the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved.
“Today, I learned my time at Halo Studios will be coming to an end following the successful launch of our latest game, Halo: Campaign Evolved. I know this is one of the most challenging job markets our industry has seen, and I know the road ahead won’t be easy. But I’m not done, and my purpose has not changed.”
Industry analyst Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics has also noted that Halo: Campaign Evolved – despite being the first entry in the franchise to come to PlayStation – hasn’t been able to leave as big a mark on the PS5 as Microsoft likely hoped. In a report, Elliot noted that the title only around 351,000 copies of the game were sold on Sony’s platform in its launch month.
Compared to other games on PS5, Halo: Campaign Evolved sat at ninth place in terms of sales, with its presence overshadowed by the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2, both of which sold quite well – 3 million and 8.2 million copies, respectively.
“July’s PS5 chart, then, is clearly all about nostalgia and the catalogue,” said Elliot. “A proven, beloved old game, dropped at the right moment and, just as importantly, at the right price, can out-earn almost anything new and buy a bit of breathing room in the slate. CoD got it. Halo didn’t. Fifty dollars for what’s essentially a graphical touch-up of a 2001 game was always going to be a hard sell, and players clearly weren’t having it.”
Halo: Campaign Evolved is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and you can check out our review for more details. While there have been plenty of criticisms about the title, one of the original co-creators of the Halo franchise has said on social media that its issues have been “taking a back seat to the fun” he has been having with the game.
