A Eulogy for Old Halo Games Ep.40

It is September 29th, 2026.

And a couple of days ago, as of the recording of this podcast...

Microsoft or Xbox Game Studios have decided that the studio formerly called 343 Industries, which changed its name to Halo Game Studios or Halo Studios, they are basically being shut down.

Not entirely, but they suffered such a large layoff of about 200 plus employees that they're essentially shut down.

And the Halo franchise has been moved out of Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, and is being moved to Activision Studios.

so that they can have one of their Call of Duty teams make the next Halo game and possibly the rest of the Halo franchise going forward.

I never thought I'd see the day.

Well, for one, I never thought I'd see the day just a couple months ago, back in July, 28th, 2026.

So that was literally two months ago from when I'm talking right now.

A Halo video game released on a piece of Sony PlayStation hardware.

I was there.

I was there back in the day when Microsoft released Halo on the OG Xbox.

And that was the killer app game to content with Sony's PlayStation 2.

And there was a legitimate reason to have an Xbox.

Obviously, there was a legitimate reason to have a PlayStation 2.

It was and possibly still is one of the best video game consoles ever released.

The Nintendo Switch and possibly Switch 2 giving it a good run for its money.

But if you had a PlayStation 2, you were eating good.

But you were also missing out on some of the incredible fun that people having massive Halo LAN parties were having.

And then it became a thing where it's like, you know what? I got both if you could afford it.

We were most of us when we got it back then.

I was in middle school.

We were kids and asking our parents.

I didn't get an Xbox until I think I've told the story many times.

But in case it's the first time you listen to this, I didn't get an Xbox until I got out of basic training when I had joined the U.S. Army.