In its July Q&A, it confirmed that, “With Machinima mode, you will be able to pop out a freecam, lower your weapons, and even control your Spartan while in freecam mode. Machinima mode is available to all players just by using input combos, and does not need to be unlocked by finding a Skull.” When used with the Acrophobia and Blind Skulls – not to mention switching off the HUD – you can effectively mimic the old-school Red vs. Blue videos of yore.

Campaign Evolved is also confirmed to sneak in a feature from Halo Infinite, where you can drop a weapon for your friend to pick up. And for those concerned about recent gameplay and the level of AI enemies, the developer confirmed that this was from a pre-release build. “Over the last few weeks, the development team has been polishing and improving elements of the game, including enemy AI behaviors.”

Finally, the big question: Does LASO (Legendary All Skulls On) for the Campaign feature all the Skulls? Since there are 42 in total, it might make for a level of chaos the game can’t handle. However, this isn’t the case. Instead, LASO features a “curated” range of Skills that “maintain the spirit of this challenge.” You can expect more details, including a pre-launch livestream, on the same, so stay tuned.

Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on July 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC (with physical copies including a disc in the box). Premium Edition owners can start playing five days earlier and receive the Alpha Halo Armory Pack with numerous outfits for Master Chief.

Editor-in-chief Patrick Garratt later posted on Bluesky that he “Was told last night that Rare’s on the block.” He later responded to a post calling the situation “grim” by adding, “It’s all horrible, yeah.”

Of course, it’s worth noting that the studio may not necessarily shut down, and not just because of the potential for a buy-out or another publisher acquiring it. Xbox has seemingly been changing its mind “within 24 hours” when it comes to recent decisions. Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb claims to have heard that Obsidian was shutting down or being sold off at one point. Leadership from its parent company may have since changed course and decided to stick with it for the time being.

Whether Rare ends up shuttered or not, this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard of layoffs. Following the cancellation of Everwild, the studio faced broader restructuring, with executive producer Louise O’Connor becoming Chief of Staff at Xbox Game Studios. Of course, she’s since departed alongside Craig Duncan, who served as Rare’s studio head before leading the first-party studios.

Sea of Thieves is likely to continue, though support and content updates are nowhere near what they were in the initial years. As always, stay tuned for more updates, as layoffs seemingly loom on July 6th.

Among these employees is former art director at Halo Studios, Glenn Israel, who had previously spoken out against the studio’s leadership’s harassment campaigns and retaliation. His statement essentially warns Xbox employees still working at the company to be well aware of their rights under various labor laws in their country.

“Make yourself aware of state and federal statutes of limitations for reporting such actions to relevant regulatory organizations, which vary from 60 to 300 days by location,” he said. “If you are laid off, consult an attorney before signing anything and at the very least secure a document retention agreement.”

While Israel has spoken out openly against the company, others spoke under condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation from Microsoft and other potential employers. They went into detail about how even filing complaints with the HR department or making use of their legal rights led to them either being fired from the company or being pressured to leave on their own. Israel said that he “roughly a dozen” former employees he spoke with had shared similar experiences.

One of these employees said that they had become caught up in mass layoffs after serving as a witness in an internal investigation against an executive at their studio. This executive allegedly “viciously berated employees in meetings,” and even tried to identify the witness. A second one spoke out against a member of their studio’s leadership team verbally abusing subordinates. This led to the employee in question being placed into a “performance improvement plan” for “disrespecting them” during a team meeting, and the employee ultimately ended up being fired as a result.

A third employee said that they saw their studio’s leadership retaliating against another employee who had filed for an ADA accommodation request for her disability. They noted that these executives would start retaliating against employees the moment the studio’s working conditions were questioned. “If you show any signs of not drinking the Kool-Aid…we don’t want you anymore,” they said.

Israel himself had spoken about facing things like “blacklisting, rampant favoritism/cronyism, and multiple harassment campaigns designed to provoke the constructive discharge of ‘unwanted’ employees otherwise in good standing” at Halo Studios. When he filed complaints with HR in June 2025, a senior Global Employee Relations representative reportedly started threatening him with retaliation and promising that they would “quash any further investigation.”

He has also noted suspicions of Microsoft using its mass layoffs as a chance to get rid of employees who have previously filed “proper and effective” complaints. The investigation teams of the company’s HR department are also alleged to be compartmentalized so that they could “obfuscate responsibility and create plausible deniability.”

“I know that our industry is in truly dire straits now, but as a matter of public interest I cannot in good conscience recommend seeking employment at this organization or continuing there if you have *any other option*,” wrote Israel. “Your effort and expertise are not respected. You are not fairly compensated. If you refuse to engage in political gamesmanship, your career will stall; if you object, you will be forced out. I have the evidence – you are not safe.”

Unfortunately, no. “We love the Mark IV armor too, so we understand the desire to wear it everywhere, but it will only be available in the 3 new bonus missions,” it said on Halo Waypoint. Furthermore, regardless of whatever customizations your version of Master Chief is sporting, they won’t appear in cutscenes. This is to “ensure that the narrative remains as faithful to the original game as possible.”

And in case you were wondering, the M99 Stanchion, a special rifle used by Sgt Johnson in the Prologue missions, won’t be usable. It won’t show up in Campaign Remix either, which offers randomized weapons, different enemy placements, and so on. “Sgt Johnson’s Stanchion, which was featured in our new missions trailer, is his personal weapon and not one he likes to share. As such, it will not be featured outside his personal use in the prequel missions.”

It’s not all bad news though. The famous backpack reload glitch from the original hasn’t been recreated, but you can enable a similar kind of behavior with the Stowed Reload Skull, causing weapons stowed on Chief’s back to reload.

LASO, the infamous challenge undertaken by campaign runners throughout the series, also returns. However, it’s more akin to The Master Chief Collection, meaning not all Skulls but still “extremely challenging.” More details will follow before Halo: Campaign Evolved’s launch on July 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, so stay tuned.

In an extensive Q&A on Halo Waypoint, the developer said, “The Blind Skull, which hides your HUD UI, weapons, and hands from view, combined with the Acrophobia Skull, which allows you to fly, should be able to provide some incredible screenshot opportunities, but there are no current plans for a Photo Mode or Theater Mode in Halo: Campaign Evolved.”

“Current” plans could mean something changes down the line. But at present, the development team isn’t looking to add any more content post-launch, be it story DLC, more Skulls, customization options or even Firefight. “Halo: Campaign Evolved is meant to focus on remaking the original campaign of Halo: Combat Evolved and providing three fun, new prequel missions. There are no plans to expand the game into a live service with continued content or feature additions.”

And no, there won’t be a demo either. While this has never really been a thing for the franchise, pre- and post-Bungie, Halo Studios’ objective seems pretty clear: “If you’re excited and want to get your hands on the game as soon as possible, you can pre-order the Premium Edition and get up to 5 days of early access beginning July 23, 2026!” Long story short, if you want to play early, then prepare to pay.

For what it’s worth, though, the Premium Edition costs $70 and also offers other bonuses like additional skins and the digital story and art collection. Those not keen on advanced access can fork over $50 for the Standard Edition, which is pretty reasonable. As for the lack of Theater Mode and plans to support the title after launch, well, we’ll let you be the judge.

Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on July 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It will also be available on day one for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Originally, Halo Waypoint claimed that both players would require a PlayStation Plus account. This drew considerable ire due to the utter lack of games with local co-op that have such requirements. Thankfully, the official Halo Twitter clarified that neither account would need PS Plus.

That said, they’ll still need to be linked to Microsoft accounts. Also, if you’re playing online co-op – which is the only way to accommodate four players – then PlayStation Plus is a must, as with other paid online titles.

Other than this hiccup (and others), Halo: Campaign Evolved looks set to launch on July 28th for Xbox Series X/S and PC alongside PS5. It will feature the same campaign as the 2001 classic but with three new Prologue missions starring Chief and Sgt. Johnson.

You can also modify a playthrough with 42 different Skulls and enable Campaign Remix for randomized weapons, different enemy placements and more. Head here for some recent extended gameplay of Assault on the Control Room, showcasing the remake’s performance ahead of release.

But the intervening years have seen the game hidden away behind a veil of mystery. Yes, there were trailers that tried very hard to tell us that the upcoming title was Fable as we always remembered it, but there’s only so much they could do in the absence of a good look at what its RPG ambitions were going to look like once they were in the hands of its players. But the latest showcase of the game has changed that.

Yes, the reboot’s bringing a very interesting combat system, a version of Albion that we can’t wait to explore, and environments that might be hard to explore when you’re stopping to admire the sights so often. But while those are all great things to have in an RPG of this scale, they’re also present in several other of the game’s competitors. Fable needs something to set itself apart, and the latest showcase has demonstrated that Albion itself might be the ace up its sleeve that it needs to stand toe-to-toe with the genre’s greatest titles.

A World That Makes Life Itself Extraordinary

The glimpse of the game that we’ve been given does show off how exploration and combat have been woven into the experience. There are quests for you to take on, of course, and a lot of the humor and unique tone that gives the franchise its identity. They’re all welcome additions, to be sure, but they’re not what we’re here to discuss in this one. Instead, we’re going to focus on how Albion seems tailored to respond to you in ways that you can predict, and in others that could have you quite surprised at their complexity.

To us, the most exciting facet of Fable isn’t that you’re going to be taking on enemies and monsters as a Hero whose abilities continue to grow and evolve as you engage with Albion. It’s in how that world remembers who you are as a person, and the kind of Hero you’ve been that has us very eager, impatient even, to get our hands on a copy.

A world in which NPCs feel sentient definitely stands out. We’ve seen games filled with hundreds of nameless characters that are largely relegated to the background, acting as a sort of decorative presence to present the illusion of worlds that are alive. Yes, some of them are vendors, or perhaps quest givers, but they’re largely nameless crowds who have no real bearing on the outcome of your adventures, or even your actions other than to present surface-level responses to what you do in their presence.

Even the ones you can interact with are limited to serving their intended functions, and not much else. A blacksmith, for example, isn’t going to be interested in much else beyond helping you upgrade your gear and weapons. Granted, they might have a bit of dialogue to make them feel like they’re responding to you and your presence in their smithy, but they don’t know you beyond the fact that you’re the main character in a story where they’re playing a small, and rather negligible part. They’re nothing more than a map icon for when you need the game to help you fulfil a specific function.

But Albion looks like it’s built around the very NPCs that other games often neglect. There are actual systems guiding their actions, and the subsequent interactions you have with them. Jack the Beggar responds to your kindness, and actively forms an impression about you when you behave charitably towards him. While that’s impressive on its own, that very same act of kindness drives the local tailor to forming a more disdainful opinion of you, her personal morals giving her the impression that your actions do not address the root cause of why Jack was in his dire straits.

Every NPC has their own routines, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and the ability to think for themselves, and those opinions form a complex web of opinions that you’re then left to navigate as you see fit. You could buy their businesses and homes, choosing to disrupt their lives and face the consequences of their displeasure, or use your new purchase to help make the lives they live better. And they remember it all, and either help or hinder you based on what they think of you. If Playground pulls this off on a scale that covers the entirety of Albion, its NPCs might be more important than its map size, and that’s a welcome deviation from a rather predictable script in the open-world RPG genre.

Playing to Its Strengths

Of course, those of us who’ve played the original Fable know that the Morality System and your Reputation were important parameters that influenced the trajectory of your story. The franchise may not be known for RPGs that are mechanically deep, but they’ve definitely been remembered for the funny, often exaggerated ways that their worlds have responded to our actions in-game. There was a personal touch, a feeling that the world around you was actually in sync with what you were doing.

You could be loved or feared, celebrated or mocked for who you were, exalted as a hero or reviled as a diabolical villain, or infamous as a morally grey individual whose unpredictability was the only certainty when you entered the room. The world made your choices feel visible, and presented tangible responses to them to make your time with any of the franchise’s offerings feel special. Fable was at its best when it (conveniently) forgot that you were the chosen one who would shape the trajectory of its world, and instead chose to treat you based on the merits of your actions. You could be a benevolent landlord, loved by your tenants, or a menace to be reviled by the locals.

You could be a spouse that was devoted to their loved one, or a local fool who couldn’t be trusted to achieve even the simplest of goals. The world you were exploring had a soul of its own, and it was one that you had to work to capture, and subsequently keep satisfied if you wanted things to go in a direction you decided. That’s precisely what the reboot is trying to recapture, and we must say that it’s doing a reasonably great job at that if that preview was any indication.

Think about how you have even a stable hand being entirely indifferent to your presence when you first enter a town. You’re a nameless entity, and one that its denizens have no reason to trust or hate since they’ve never seen you before. But one set of decisions, of all things, and you were then a person who was interesting enough for NPC to sit up and take notice of. The aforementioned Jack the Beggar, and his subsequent new lot in life as a local bartender, all stem from you.

Of course, word travels fast and while some find you to be compassionate and kind, others might think you’re naive, and yet to see the bigger picture of a world that allows systemic inequalities to exist between the people in it. But it’s those inequalities that allow you to shape lives by becoming a landlord or business owner, offering employment and housing to those who need them, and earning their trust and benevolence in the process.

It’s a world in which people aren’t afraid to show their pleasure or displeasure to your face, with tangible reactions on the visual front, and systems that can help or hinder you based on who you’re interacting with, and what they think of you. A sense of sentience permeates the very air of Albion, and its one that’s always watching what you do and responding to it in ways that mimic what a Hero would face in the real world.

Fable isn’t just giving us a reactive story next year, but a reactive society, which is a distinction that automatically sets it apart from other titles. It’s a recipe for some truly chaotic outcomes the more we think about it. You could be a landlord whose tenants cannot stop singing praises of, while being a Hero whose actions aren’t necessarily in the best interests of the people you’re fighting for. You could be kind and compassionate, being revered for it even as that very kindness ruins local economies.

It’s a great way to ensure that no two playthroughs of the game are going to look alike. Playground has realized that Fable doesn’t need to be a serious RPG, but an interactive fairy tale in which every Hero can walk away with absolutely ridiculous stories. And with player agency being as central to the experience as it is, the potential for a title that players keep coming back to of their own free will is right there.

A Positive Influence

When you think about the kind of experience that it offers from the perspective of other open-world games, it’s easy to see why we’re quite hooked on the idea of a world that isn’t judged on its scale, the length of its questlines, the density of markers on its map, its loot and crafting systems, upgrade trajectories, or cinematic presentation. That’s not to say they aren’t a part of the experience that Fable’s offering, but they’ve taken a backseat to a world that makes the little moments matter.

Where other games could have you already thinking about where you want to go next after you conduct your business ina town, Fable aims to have you staying back to try and learn more about the population. It makes you wonder if the people around you truly know you for who you are, and whether your presence can enrich their lives, or ruin them entirely. You’re given the power to shape their destinies, but how you do that is completely up to you, and there’s enough unpredictability to make your efforts succeed, or fail so spectacularly you’re going to have to work to understand how your plans unravelled.

It’s a far more interesting pitch than having yet another massive world full of lifeless interactions to explore, to be sure, but we must consider the possibility of the effort backfiring, just as how your attempts to be a Hero for the ages can lead your people to ruin. Can these systems continue to have an impact across the entire experience? Can they remain meaningful – and compelling – once you’ve spent about twenty or thirty hours in Albion?

We’re a tad worried that it can be too easy for NPCs to get you if you have enough money to bribe town criers, giving you a way to get a clean slate in a given town that seems too convenient for an experience like this one. We would have liked to see the preview visit how your criminal actions at the end of it affected your relationship with the owner of the general store, whose last interaction with you was one of familiarity and goodwill considering all the good things you had done up until that point.

Is the sheer amount of player agency you’re offered going to have actual consequences to your decisions, or is it just a way of letting the game amuse you with funny reactions from the people you’re engaging with? Fable’s systems worked well in the demo, but we’re wondering if they worked too well in the curated slice of a larger pie that we were allowed to see.

But concerns aside, that demo gave the upcoming reboot a sense of identity that it sorely needed over the past few years. Fable isn’t trying to be a big fantasy RPG for the Xbox, but a world that makes Albion feel social, reactive, messy, amusing, and most importantly, personal. It puts you at the front of the experience, and lets its world draw you in by giving you a life that’s full of the chaos and joy that such a world would offer.

It’s a recipe that could have you wanting more if it succeeds, or otherwise leave a bitter aftertaste. But like any journey worth undertaking, we’d say that the effort must count for something.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

“One of which would come as a shock to everyone,” he added. In a follow-up post, Straw clarified “It wasn’t Obsidian or Rare, for those who’ve asked. I’m working on trying to get more details on what employees are feeling at the moment. But the picture could become clearer in the coming weeks, depending on what decisions get finalized.”

That said, he alleged that “everything is on the table at Xbox.” Just because the above studios weren’t apparently brought up doesn’t mean they’re not at risk of layoffs.

If you go by recent reports of titles that under-performed, including Kiln, Keeper, South of Midnight and Forza Motorsport, it’s possible that Double Fine Productions, Compulsion Games and Turn 10 Studios get the axe. The latter seems unlikely given that it’s working on the PS5 port of Forza Horizon 6 and potentially providing support on Fable.

Unfortunately, Double Fine’s latest efforts haven’t really stood out much, even though Keeper received critical acclaim. South of Midnight is another title that received relatively decent reviews, but even after launching on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, it seemingly couldn’t translate that to strong sales.

As always, we’ll need to wait and see, especially after reports claimed layoffs will begin after the current fiscal quarter ends (so from July onwards). Stay tuned in the meantime.

Take the UK PlayStation Store, for example, where the game’s Standard Edition is currently the most pre-ordered across the board, while the Premium Edition is in the top five. In the US, the Premium Edition is the seventh most pre-ordered title, though the Standard Edition has a ways to go, not even ranking in the top ten. This may be due to advanced access to the campaign, which starts on July 23rd.

France and Germany tell similar stories, with the former showing a lot of interest in the Premium Edition while the latter has been quite kind to the base game. With all this success for a title that hasn’t even released yet, we can’t help but wonder if things could improve on the Gears of War front, and whether The Coalition is going to rethink its decision about not making PlayStation a priority for its upcoming prequel.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is surely proving to be demonstrable evidence of an approach that takes a measured view of platform exclusivity, after all. We’ll have to wait and see how things shake out when it launches on July 28th worldwide for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

“When I stepped into the role of leading XGS 20 months ago, my purpose was to serve our studios, our teams, and the people making our games. Together, we set out to deliver high-quality games, strengthen the cultural fabric across our studios, and help shape the future of the business. I’m proud to say we delivered many flawless launches that drove business success for the company,” he wrote in an alleged email to staff.

Regarding O’Connor, Duncan apparently said: “Louise has been a thoughtful, creative, and trusted partner who has consistently championed the craft and supported our studios with clarity and care. I’m grateful for everything she’s brought to XGS, and I’m sure she’ll be successful in whatever comes next for her.”

A replacement for Duncan has yet to be confirmed, but in the meantime, Xbox Game Studios will apparently report to chief content officer Matt Booty.

If the rumors are true, this is could only be the start of potential mass layoffs at Xbox. The Verge’s Tom Warren believes a studio closure is also inevitable, and we may even see the studio lineup changing, though in what shape and form remains to be seen.

Xbox’s last major wave of layoffs occurred roughly a year ago, also after the fiscal quarter concluded. It resulted in the cancellation of Everwild, ZeniMax’s Blackbird and Perfect Dark (which apparently affected the division’s profitability quite heavily). Besides The Initiative’s closure, studios across the board faced layoffs, including Turn 10 Studios, which has been reduced to supporting Playground’s Forza Horizon franchise and Fable.

Will these changes help facilitate quicker turnaround on projects or help the console business? Time will tell, so stay tuned. It’s only going to get messier before it gets better.