Microsoft is consolidating its internal development studios, with a significant change seeing Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios merge into a single entity. Xbox chief creative officer Matt Booty announced the move in a letter to employees, stating that the two studios, responsible for the Forza series, have been creative partners for over a decade and will now formally operate as one team.
This merger comes as part of a larger wave of restructuring within Xbox, which includes the elimination of 268 positions. While Booty's letter did not explicitly detail potential layoffs resulting from the merger, it is common for studio consolidations to result in overlapping roles and subsequent redundancies.
Playground Games, established in 2012, has been the driving force behind the Forza Horizon sub-series, evolving it into one of Xbox's flagship franchises. The studio recently released Forza Horizon 5 and is set to develop the upcoming Fable title. Turn 10 Studios, founded in 2001, has historically focused on the more simulation-oriented Forza Motorsport series. The studio released Forza Motorsport in 2023, aiming for a live-service model that ultimately did not gain significant traction. Following substantial layoffs in July 2025, Turn 10 shifted to a support role for Playground Games, leading former content coordinator Fred Russell to remark that the studio was effectively shuttered.