It looked like the end of the road for the studio behind the upcoming Halo: Nightfall earlier this summer when Microsoft announced that they would be closing the doors on Xbox Entertainment Studios. But according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. is thinking about buying the studio as part of a deal with the Redmond software giant.

If the deal were to go through, Warner Bros. would merge Xbox Entertainment Studios with Machinima, although the talks are still early and there’s a chance that this could all fall through before anything comes to fruition.

Don’t go thinking we’re going to be hearing about a Halo movie just yet: if it went through, the deal would allow XES to keep the lights on, while continuing to develop original digital programming. Microsoft set up the subsidiary back in 2012 in the hopes of creating original content for the web and Xbox platforms. Among those were the recently-completed Halo: Nightfall with producer Ridley Scott, which will make its debut this November, along with a planned Halo series. It was all part of Microsoft’s continued strategy to make the Xbox the set-top box where you watch all of your entertainment things.

The studio’s closure came amid restructuring at Microsoft as they made plans to cut 18,000 members of their workforce after acquiring Nokia. Most of the cuts came from the mobile company, but MS has been trying to figure out how to become more agile and focus on what works (there were even calls to spin the Xbox division off as its own company).

Would you like to see Warner Bros. rescue Xbox Entertainment Studios? Let us know in the comments below.

[HT: The Hollywood Reporter via Game Informer]