Gears Of War story director laid off as Halo Studios is reduced to skeleton crew

More details have emerged around Xbox’s latest round of layoffs, as one Halo Studios employee is promoted and laid off in the same week. 

While not as big as the layoffs in July, in terms of raw numbers, Xbox’s latest cuts look set to have a massive impact on the company’s future. 

Yesterday, Xbox announced 268 people had been laid off across Halo Studios, other first party studios, and Xbox Game Studios’ management. At the same time a number of developers were merged together, while others face closure, and Activision is set to make the next mainline Halo game. 

These shifts are all part of Xbox’s so-called ‘reset’, with 3,200 employees due to be laid off at Xbox before the end of June 2027. Following this latest wave, 1,868 employees have been laid off so far, with 1,332 jobs within the company still at risk. 

It’s easy to forget about the actual people affected when they’re listed as mere numbers in an Xbox Wire blog post, but details have started to emerge around those impacted. 

If you want an insight into the level of corporate mismanagement at play, look no further than the experience of Halo Studios’ cinematic director Josh Daniels. In a post on LinkedIn, Daniels claimed he had been ‘promoted and laid off in the same week’. 

‘I’m one of the many hit by the Halo Studios layoff,’ he said. ‘I’ll be taking some offline time today but very much would love to talk to anyone looking for Cinematic Direction or Production roles.’

Based on others, it seems like Halo Studios has been trimmed down to a skeleton crew. According to sources cited by former Halo pro player Bradley ‘aPG’ Laws, who is currently a content creator for OpTic Gaming, there are only ’20 people left at the studio’. 

This tracks with reporting by Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who claimed Halo Studios was ‘looking at major layoffs in the hundreds’. Additionally, in the Xbox Wire blog post, it said a ‘small team’ at Halo Studios would ‘continue supporting the Halo community and other games in-market’, which also suggests they’ve been significantly reduced.

Beyond Halo, Gears Of War developer The Coalition has also been hit by layoffs. In another LinkedIn post, Gears Of War: E-Day’s story director, Juan Vaca, announced he had been laid off from the studio. ‘I am part of this round of Microsoft layoffs and am open to new opportunities in games/film/TV,’ he wrote. 

This comes after Vaca, who joined The Coalition in 2022, posted just five days ago that Gears Of War: E-Day had gone gold (aka when the game is ready to be printed on discs). 

It’s unclear how many people were let go at The Coalition as part of these layoffs. According to Kotaku, less than a handful of people were cut at the studio, for reasons unrelated to the Xbox restructuring, but Vaca’s LinkedIn post suggests some were impacted by this recent wave.

With the launch of Gears Of War: E-Day just around the corner on October 6, it feels like The Coalition could be severely affected soon after – especially as Xbox still has 1,332 jobs left to cut before the end of the financial year. 

Even for those who have broken away from Xbox, the situation is dire. State Of Decay 3 developer Undead Labs, who are now independent, announced on LinkedIn it had to let go a ‘significant number’ of its employees in order to stay afloat. 

Double Fine Productions, who also split from Xbox earlier this year, were similarly forced to lay off staff after gaining their independence. South Of Midnight developer Compulsion Games, meanwhile, appears to have avoided layoffs in their move to freedom, but the studio shared a post that they’re looking for work in the aftermath.

The reality is, even as Xbox makes these shifts to fix short term financial holes, the fruits of these moves – like a new Halo from Activision, or more Fallout games – are still many years away. With their next console, Project Helix, expected to launch next year, Xbox faces an increasingly uncertain future.

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