Gears of War: E-Day – Story Director Laid Off Just Days After Game Goes Gold

Ideally, there should be a celebratory mood at The Coalition: Gears of War: E-Day has “gone gold”, meaning it's fully developed and ready for production. Instead, a personnel decision is causing a stir – the game's Story Director was laid off just days after this milestone as part of the latest Xbox layoff wave.

Who exactly was impacted at Gears of War: E-Day?

According to consistent reports, E-Day's Story Director was affected, who played a significant role in the narrative development of the prequel, which depicts the early days of the war against the Locust. His dismissal came just days after the game officially achieved gold status – precisely at a time when a story team would least expect their work to end, as the core creative work is typically long completed by then.

Why are employees still being laid off now, just before release?

This case is part of Microsoft's broader Xbox “reset”, which has seen several studios and teams cut jobs recently – including the Age of Empires team at World’s Edge. From a corporate perspective, such decisions are made independently of the development status of individual projects; for those affected, it naturally feels different when the dismissal comes precisely after their work on the game has just been successfully completed.

Will the release of Gears of War: E-Day be delayed because of this?

Clarification: No – this personnel change alters nothing. Since the game has already “gone gold”, E-Day's content and scope are technically fixed at this point, and the release date of October 6th remains unaffected. Nevertheless, the case is remarkable because it shows that even the successful completion of a major AAA project currently doesn't protect employees from layoffs – a pattern recently observed across several Xbox studios. For fans, this means: the game itself will arrive as planned, but the team that made it will no longer fully exist in its current form after release.

Source: PC Gamer

What do you think about layoffs shortly after project completion – understandable corporate reality or bad form? Let us know your opinion in the comments.