For six and a half years, Nick Treitman watched round after round of layoffs pass him by at Halo Studios. This week, his luck ran out.
“After 6.5 years working on Halo and dodging just as many rounds of layoffs — it has finally caught up to me,” Treitman wrote on LinkedIn. “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.”
A producer on Halo: Campaign Evolved, Treitman also described himself as the “product owner of Halo Infinite’s social multiplayer pillar.” His role is one of several eliminated at the studio — cuts that Insider Gaming reported first, and that affected staff have since confirmed through a slow drip of LinkedIn posts.
Also gone is Paul Morris, a scrum master with more than two years at the studio.
“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,” his post reads. “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.”
Campaign Evolved software engineer Caleb Lawrence has made no announcement at all. He simply switched his LinkedIn status to “available for work,” which says much the same thing.
The reviews said the opposite
That’s what makes the timing so jarring. Campaign Evolved arrived to widespread critical acclaim — not universal, but close.
VGC gave the remake a 10/10, saying it offers “reason to be optimistic that the series’ best days are still ahead.” Game Informer scored it 8.5/10 and called it a “superb update and rebuild of what made the original great.” We’d rank it among the finest remakes ever made.
The spreadsheet was unmoved.
This was always coming
A month ago, Xbox confirmed plans to cut more than 3,200 jobs across its entire studio portfolio, with the process unfolding in stages through July 2027. Halo Studios is just the newest entry on that ledger.
Whether the studio faces further reductions remains an open question.
The roadmap, on the other hand, isn’t in question. A Halo 2 remake is essentially confirmed, with Halo 3 expected to follow. Xbox isn’t backing off its plan to keep rebuilding the older games in the series.
It’s just doing so with fewer of the people who built the last one.