Halo Could Become an Activision Series, According to 'Crazy Rumors'

There's a lot of internal turmoil right now within Xbox as mass layoffs loom overhead while management weighs studio closings by the hour. But one thing is consistent throughout the reporting: Halo, Fallout, Gears of War, The Elder Scrolls and Call of Duty are the priorities right now.

The only problem is that none of these flagships are in a good location. Gears of War is said to have a budget somewhere between $200 to $400 million (though that figure has been disputed), meaning it would have to be the best-performing entry in the series' history just to break even—not to mention remain platform-exclusive at a time when Xbox's player base is shrinking; Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6 are still years away and have a lot to prove after Starfield; Already mired in controversy for its sweeping changes to the original, Halo: Campaign Evolved arrives on the heels of Infinite, which significantly underperformed; and to top it all off, Game Pass has eaten into Call of Duty's sales, while Black Ops 7 was drowned out last year by huge fan backlash and stiff competition, leaving other Xbox studios allegedly feeling punished for their failure.

So what is the solution? VGC's Jordan Middler initially reported that Obsidian Entertainment was working on a Fallout game — a rumor that Bloomberg's Jason Schreier quickly debunked. Call of Duty promised to stop back-to-back sequels after the failures of Black Ops 6 and 7, while confirming “no more stupid skins” – an empty promise considering Nicolas Cage was just added to BO7 and Warzone. Then there's Halo. There's a lot riding on Campaign Evolved to revive the franchise, but a “crazy rumor” is circulating among insiders that Activision may be given the reins to get the series back on track.

“I heard a crazy rumor that they might put Halo under Activision”

“I heard a crazy rumor that they might put Halo under Activision, which — I don't, for what it's worth — I don't necessarily believe that right now,” said Windows Central editor Jez Corden (via Power Up Gaming ). “But if that happens, you heard this first, this is the kind of thing that they're looking at, 'How do we structure Halo so that it can actually start delivering on the potential that it actually has?' Because so far, I would argue that it largely hasn't. They're looking at how Activision does things a lot, how Blizzard does things a lot, because Halo could work as a Blizzard franchise.”

Of course, it goes without saying – take this “crazy rumor” with a grain of salt. There have been plenty of conflicting reports on Xbox this week as newly appointed CEO Asha Sharma makes sweeping changes at alarming speeds. Reports suggest she's actively responding to analysts, consultants and even X-threads, demanding that studios turn things around within days or even hours. It's entirely possible that discussions about moving Halo Studios into a strictly managerial role while Activision takes over development occurred, only for the idea to be released that afternoon. Given the insider game tennis over whether Obsidian Entertainment had been put on the chopping block, that would hardly be surprising.