// KOTAKU — GAMING
The State Of Xbox’s 25+ Game Studios And What They’re Up To In 2026
Back in 2020, we took a look at all of the various game studios Xbox owned and operated at the time. Since then, a lot has happened. In 2021, Xbox finalized its purchase of Bethesda and its subsidiary studios. It launched the Xbox Series X and S consoles. And then in 2023, it completed its messy, protracted acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Now, in 2026, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has announced a massive shake-up of the company, complete with yet another massive round of layoffs. So it seems like a perfect time to once again take a look at every studio Xbox owns, owned, closed, or sold, and figure out the current status of Xbox Game Studios.
For this list, we’ll be going in order of when a studio was acquired or founded, but I’ve also separated out Activision and Bethesda studios to make it easier to scroll through.
Turn 10 is one of Xbox’s oldest studios that’s still lingering around. However, brutal layoffs in 2025 reportedly gutted the studio. It was also reported that a new Forza Motorsport had been canned. That has led to Turn 10 becoming more of a small support team for Playground Games and its Forza Horizon games, the spin-off series that has now become one of Xbox’s most important franchises.
Another of Xbox’s oldest studios that are still standing, Rare is mostly focused on its live-service pirate game, Sea of Thieves. In 2025, Xbox laid off staff at the studio and canceled the long-in-development Everwild.
After Bungie left Xbox in 2007 to develop Destiny, the company created a studio dedicated to making more Halo games. That studio has shipped a few different sequels and remasters since 2007. In 2023 and then 2025, the studio was hit with layoffs. It is now finishing up Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original Halo that is expected to launch in July.
The Coalition was founded in 2010 as Zipline, and after going by some other names, it was eventually tasked with the job of continuing the Gears of War series after Epic sold it to Xbox. Similar to Halo Studios, the Coalition has overseen numerous sequels, spin-offs, and remasters since taking over the franchise. It is set to ship the next mainline Gears game, the upcoming prequel Gears of War: E-Day, exclusively on Xbox and PC in October.
12 years ago, Xbox realized how popular Minecraft was becoming and made one of its best moves in 20 years: It bought up the studio behind Minecraft from the creator of the game, Markus Persson, and kept the brick-based survival game multiplatform while letting the PC version continue to be modded freely. The result has been one of Microsoft’s biggest franchises, with many spin-off games and a blockbuster movie starring Jack Black released to big box-office success in 2025.
Compulsion Games was one of six different studios Xbox acquired on its now-infamous pre-pandemic spending spree. In July 2026, the studio behind South of Midnight reached a deal with Xbox to split off from the company and go indie again. It will receive some funding and support from Xbox during this transition as it looks for new partners and publishers. The studio will get to keep all of its IP and franchises after it splits.
Another studio gobbled up by Xbox as part of its shopping spree, inXile remains at Xbox Games Studio and is currently working on Clockwork Revolution, a first-person action RPG shooter that is set to launch in 2027 exclusively on Xbox and PC. Previously, the studio shipped Wasteland 3 in 2020 shortly after it was bought by Xbox.
This is another studio bought by Xbox during that spree in 2018, and it’s another one that is being cut loose as part of Sharma’s big shake-up. The team behind Hellblade and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was able to find a new owner and have signed a contract to begin transitioning away from Xbox. We still don’t know who snagged Ninja Theory, but the team will be able to finish work on the third game in the Hellblade series, simply titled Senua. It plans to launch this upcoming action sequel in 2027.