Juan Vaca, the story director of the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, is one of hundreds of employees who are losing their jobs as part of Xbox’s latest round of cuts. And heartbreakingly, Vaca was fired just days after a celebratory post announcing that E-Day had gone gold. On September 22, Xbox announced more layoffs and studio changes as part of its ongoing corporate “reboot.” (The company is also moving Halo to Activision and merging its Forza teams into a single studio.) More than 260 employees were laid off on Tuesday, according to Xbox, following a massive round of layoffs in July. In this last round of cuts was Vaca, who confirmed the news on social networks. “I’m part of this round of layoffs from Microsoft and open to new opportunities in games/movies/TV,” Vaca posted on LinkedIn and BlueSky. “If your team needs a director/narrator, please contact us.” Vaca joined the studio in 2022 and helped “guide narrative teams and interdisciplinary groups through the process of building a story from concept to execution,” according to his LinkedIn page. It is unknown at this time how many other people at The Coalition were laid off as part of Xbox’s latest round of cuts on Tuesday. According to a source familiar with the matter, less than a handful of people were let go at the studio for reasons unrelated to today’s broader restructuring within Xbox, and plans around the release of E-Day remain unchanged. Kotaku has contacted Xbox for more information. What makes this layoff even more depressing is the fact that just four days ago, on September 17, Vaca posted on those same social media sites that Gears of War: E-Day had gone Gold, effectively meaning that development on the game, which launches on October 6, is finished and is now ready to be printed on discs. “Gears of War: E-Day has gone Gold,” Vaca posted on LinkedIn. “I’m excited for the world to see what the whole team has been cooking up.” Update 09/22/2026, 3:14 pm ET: Added more information on the impact of the cuts.
