Gear of War: E-Day developers are reportedly in no mood to celebrate the game’s imminent release, following months of overtime and fresh fears of further layoffs.
That’s according to a Eurogamer report that includes comments from various sources at The Coalition, Microsoft’s dedicated Gears of War team that has been working on E-Day for the past five years.
Microsoft has made numerous rounds of redundancies over that time, though staff at The Coalition say they previously felt somewhat insulated from the job losses due to their work on such a high-profile project. But as their time building Gears of War: E-Day has wound down — a period that has also reportedly seen them “crunching hard” — there are now serious concerns that layoffs may soon be on the horizon for them, too.
“The mood is certainly ‘let’s not celebrate the game until we’re three months post launch, just in case’, which is very unusual,” one source said.
“We’re just expecting the next wave [of layoffs], or being reorganized under Activision or something later this year,” claimed another.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma unveiled a plan to cut 3,200 jobs across the company this year back in July, when the first 1,600 redundancies were announced. Then, last month, a second batch of layoffs were confirmed alongside major structural changes that saw Halo Studios downsized and the franchise handed to Activision, which will also manage veteran British studio Rare. With such seismic changes for Xbox’s flagship shooter franchise, suddenly nothing seemed as certain for its Gears of War team.
Staff say they are now “on edge” for the hammer to drop, especially following the “very demoralizing” layoff of Gears of War: E-Day story director Juan Vaca, who was recently culled just two weeks before the game’s release.
“I can only imagine the heartbreak of spending all those years on a game to have the final stretch ripped away, completely out of your control,” another source said, commented on Vaca’s departure. “It’s like you planned for a year on a meal for your family where everyone will be there and the day of, you get locked out of the building or something and can’t join in.”
Microsoft declined to provide an official response to Eurogamer for its report, though it is understood that Microsoft has acknowledged staff have worked hard on getting E-Day out the door, and that this extra effort includes out-of-hours toil that will be repaid in additional holiday.
Xbox is yet to detail when its final round of layoffs this year will take place, though even if The Coalition is told it’s safe for now, some staff have suggested they still won’t breathe a sight of relief. “It’s hard to believe anything [Microsoft leadership] say anymore after discarding staff in this manner,” one employee stated.
Last week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described the Xbox layoffs as “streamlining” at the company that was “great to see.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social