Josh Daniels’ time at Halo Studios came to an unexpected end after he revealed that he was promoted and laid off in the same week. His departure comes as Xbox goes through a major restructuring and Activision takes over development of the next Halo game.
He studied at Arizona State University from 2005 to 2007. Before joining Halo Studios, Daniels worked at Turn 10 Studios for 8 years and 10 months.
Josh Daniels was the cinematic director of Halo Studios, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He had been involved with Xbox for just over a decade, having previously lent his talents to the Forza Motorsport games.
A video game cinematic director oversees the game’s creative vision, story direction and in-game cutscenes, among other work. Other studios affected by Xbox’s restructuring include Undead Labs. Daniels joined Halo Studios as cinematic director in July 2024, as per his LinkedIn, and worked on Halo: Campaign Evolved, a title that was met with a lukewarm reception from players upon its release earlier this year, according to IGN. The studio said its next game , State of Decay 3, is still in active development. It is expected to have a closed beta later this year, with the game set to release in 2027, as per IGN.
