Xbox Restructuring, Bungie Rebuilds Destiny, GTA VI News
Microsoft’s Xbox restructuring becomes the week’s defining story, moving the next Halo game under Activision while layoffs hit Halo Studios, World’s Edge, Gears of War: E-Day, and other teams. Bungie also reverses course on Destiny 2 support and broadens Marathon beyond extraction gameplay as several studios confront player loss, layoffs, or outright closure.
Rockstar Games keeps Grand Theft Auto VI in the spotlight with a major Game Informer cover story, while Nintendo schedules The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2 and Remedy Entertainment expands Control: Resonant after launch.
Microsoft Xbox Restructuring Puts Halo and Ninja Theory at Risk
Microsoft confirms 268 job cuts across Halo Studios, Xbox Game Studios management, and other first-party teams, while Activision takes responsibility for the next mainline Halo through a new team separate from Call of Duty. Halo Studios is reduced primarily to a support role for existing games as the franchise changes hands inside Microsoft.
The restructuring also moves World’s Edge, the studio behind Age of Empires, under Activision, with reports indicating that the team loses nearly half its staff and has a project canceled. Ninja Theory enters consultation ahead of a proposed closure, while layoffs also reach Gears of War: E-Day shortly before its early access launch.
Obsidian Entertainment now reports through Bethesda, but Bethesda president Jill Braff says the change is administrative and that the Fallout: New Vegas and Grounded developer retains its leadership, creative identity, and roadmap. Undead Labs becomes an independent, employee-owned studio after separating from Xbox, although a significant number of staff lose their jobs while State of Decay 3 remains in development.
Bungie Restores Destiny 2 Content and Reworks Marathon
Bungie says it will restore vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids from the game’s first four years after acknowledging that the content should not have been removed. The studio presents Destiny as foundational to its future and says it must rebuild player trust after ending ongoing support several months earlier.
Marathon receives a separate reset as Bungie admits the extraction shooter has not reached as many players as expected. The studio plans to preserve Marathon’s winner-takes-all PvEvP mode while adding a social hub, a fungus-filled Perimeter area, and lower-intensity options intended to make the game more approachable.
Embark Studios is testing a similar compromise in Arc Raiders, with an opt-in PvE mode scheduled for October 13 through October 20. The test prevents players from damaging one another while leaving the game’s machines hostile, giving cooperative players an alternative without removing the existing PvEvP format.
Hideo Kojima Explains Physint’s Move From PlayStation to Xbox
Physint’s publishing moves from PlayStation to Xbox after Sony steps away from Kojima Productions’ action-espionage project, but the game’s final platform plans remain unsettled. Hideo Kojima says he does not know whether Physint will release on PS5 and has not decided whether the project will use Sony’s Decima engine.
Reports connect Sony’s retreat to budget concerns, missed deadlines, profitability worries, and weaker-than-expected Death Stranding sales, but Kojima Productions says the coverage does not come from an official or on-the-record source. Kojima says Sony told him over Zoom that Physint was being canceled, while the studio maintains that it remains healthy and profitable.
Whether Xbox’s involvement covers more than publishing, and whether Physint becomes Xbox-exclusive, is still unresolved. The dispute leaves the game’s relationship with PlayStation uncertain even as Kojima says he continues to love Sony.
Grand Theft Auto VI Gets a Game Informer Cover Story
Grand Theft Auto VI is the subject of a 14-page Game Informer cover story featuring new screenshots and interviews with Rockstar Games, with Jason and Lucia appearing on the cover. The issue is scheduled to arrive on September 29 and represents Rockstar’s next planned information drop for the open-world sequel.
Rockstar also tightens its Grand Theft Auto VI modding rules, banning unofficial main-story expansions, unauthorized ports, combined Grand Theft Auto maps, and projects using third-party intellectual property. The policy threatens plans to monetize Grand Theft Auto VI role-playing servers, while Take-Two removes footage of scrapped Grand Theft Auto V DLC and an early Grand Theft Auto VI map.
Nintendo Switch 2 Adds Ocarina of Time and Stellar Blade Content
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, with Nintendo releasing new footage focused on Ganondorf and comparison videos featuring the Nintendo 64 and 3DS versions. The Nintendo Switch 2 release of 007 First Light moves in the opposite direction, with IO Interactive delaying the game for a third time to March 2027.
Stellar Blade receives a playable Nintendo Switch 2 demo through the eShop, while SHIFT UP reveals a free Bayonetta collaboration that adds Bayonetta-inspired outfits to the Switch 2 version. The updates give Nintendo’s console new versions of two prominent action games as the platform’s software lineup continues to expand.
Control Resonant Launches With Combat Fixes and New Game Plus
Control: Resonant launches on PS5 and Xbox with a PS5 hotfix that adjusts its stun-focused combat after early players and reviewers criticize the difficulty of its opening areas. Remedy Entertainment plans a larger update for next month that adds New Game++ and photo mode.
The PC version has a SteamOS caveat, with Control: Resonant working on other SteamOS systems but currently marked Unsupported on Steam Deck. The launch shows Remedy responding quickly to criticism while continuing to build out the game’s post-launch feature set.
Dune: Awakening is now available on Xbox Series X|S with Xbox Game Pass access for eligible Ultimate, PC, and Premium members, alongside new accessibility and customization options. Silent Hill: Townfall also reaches PS5 and PC, with reviews praising Screen Burn’s atmosphere and first-person horror while criticizing its stealth systems.
Game Industry Closures and Cancellations Deepen
Build a Rocket Boy, the developer behind the poorly received shooter MindsEye, enters administration after another wave of layoffs. Digital Bros and 505 Games also cancel Armed Fantasia, the Wild Arms spiritual successor, after multiple attempts to revise its gameplay and a broader review of the project.
The same decision cancels Directorate: Novitiate and a Battle Islands sequel, showing how publisher-level reviews can remove multiple projects at once. Elsewhere, Star Wars Zero Company passes an estimated one million sales, but its development team is reportedly furloughed rather than immediately restored.
Marvel’s Wolverine provides a contrasting commercial result, recording PlayStation’s biggest physical UK launch of 2026 and the country’s third-largest boxed launch across games and consoles this year. The strong debut is accompanied by claims that regional versions censor Mystique’s lesbian relationship and marriage to Tyger, with player comparisons pointing to differences between releases.