Gears of War: E-Day has officially gone gold, signaling its readiness for an October 6 launch, but the milestone was overshadowed by layoffs at developer The Coalition. Story director Juan Vaca revealed on LinkedIn that he was part of a wave of over 260 job cuts impacting Xbox Game Studios.
Vaca, who served as story director for Gears of War: E-Day for over four years, stated he is "open to new opportunities in games/film/TV." His prior experience includes narrative design work at Telltale Games, a role at Netflix, and an internship at Marvel Studios.
The recent layoffs are part of a broader reorganization within Xbox. These cuts have affected first-party developers, management, and central functions teams. This follows a previous round of 1,600 redundancies in July. Xbox leadership has indicated that these restructuring efforts are ongoing, with further cuts expected, particularly at Blizzard.
This wave of layoffs also saw Josh Daniels, cinematic director at Halo Studios, let go shortly after a promotion. The Halo studio has undergone significant reductions, leaving a smaller team to focus on supporting existing titles and the community. Future Halo games are slated to be developed by a new team at Activision.