Gears of War story director laid off mere days after E-Day went gold

Gears of War: E-Day is almost here, but that doesn’t mean its developers have been spared in Microsoft’s latest wave of layoffs as part of the Xbox « reset. » While The Coalition, the studio currently working on the Gears of War series, was not mentioned by name in Matt Booty’s « Continuing Our Reset » blog post, story director Juan Vaca announced on LinkedIn that he is now looking for work.

« I am part of this round of Microsoft layoffs and am open to new opportunities in games/film/tv, » he wrote. « If your team needs a director/storyteller please reach out. » It is perhaps especially galling given that Gears of War: E-Day went gold just days before the layoffs were announced, with a full release planned for Oct. 6.

It has felt increasingly like there is simply no amount of success, sales, acclaim, or back-breaking work you can demonstrate in the games industry to avoid some pencil pusher’s job cut scythe. It’s not just Microsoft’s massive rounds of layoffs—take a studio like Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor, which furloughed most of its staff despite glowing reviews and over a million copies sold. This situation with Vaca echoes when, last year, a writer on Apex Legends was laid off just one day after a character she spent a year writing was unveiled.

For a primer on all the most reliable ways you can get laid off in the games industry, check out our guide on that very phenomenon. It is a sobering time to wish you could cheer on the medium’s every step forward, given that the reward for doing the work seems to be a kick out the door.