343 Industries has issued a statement rejecting reports that the business would no longer oversee Halo developments. This is in reaction to speculations alleging that although Microsoft was laying off up to 10,000 people – including 343 personnel – it was also planning to relocate the production of Halo games to a new studio in its reorganisation efforts.
As it deals with the impact of layoffs occurring across the computer sector, Microsoft is going through a difficult time. When word initially came that Microsoft was planning to have significant layoffs before the end of its fiscal year, there were obvious fears about how it might spread to its enormous video game divisions. As the hours and days passed, news of a few developers from other studios sent word that they were let go. The most dramatic news was the notion being propagated that 343 Industries was about to lose development responsibility for the Halo games.
