World’s Edge, a studio that’s overseen development on the Age of Empires franchise since 2019, has reportedly just had its next game canceled. News of this potential Age of Empires cancelation comes in the wake of Xbox’s latest round of layoffs, which seems to have greatly impacted World’s Edge.
During the summer of 2019, Xbox Game Studios announced that it had acquired Double Fine and had set up a brand-new studio dedicated to overseeing development on the Age of Empires franchise. This new studio would later be named World’s Edge. While World’s Edge didn’t actively develop the series itself, it did manage the various partner studios that worked on Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, Age of Empires 4, and Age of Mythology: Retold.
Xbox May Have Laid Off Almost Half of World’s Edge and Canceled Its Next Game
On September 23, World’s Edge Creative Director Adam Isgreen announced via LinkedIn that after 16 years working at Microsoft, he had been let go. After sharing how proud he is of titles he’s worked on over the last nearly two decades, such as Minecraft, Trials HD, State of Decay, Crackdown, Fable, and Age of Empires, Isgreen states that he’s “of course disappointed that this is the way the time with World’s Edge and Age ends for [himself] and many of [his] talented teammates.” The term “many” here seems to suggest that World’s Edge was hit hard by Xbox’s most recent round of layoffs.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
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Over on ResetEra, an unnamed but verified Creative Director replied to a thread discussing the recent Xbox layoffs, stating that “just under half” of World’s Edge was laid off, including themselves. It’s unclear if this Creative Director is Isgreen, but the sentiment is clear: World’s Edge has been greatly impacted by Xbox’s 2026 “reset”.
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World’s Edge Senior Software Engineer Andrew Martz shed additional light on how the layoffs have affected the Age of Empires studio. On LinkedIn, Martz claims that World’s Edge’s next project has been canceled and that “a large chunk” of the studio has been laid off. Martz was personally affected by the layoffs, which he says occurred just seven days after he was promoted to a senior position in the company. Martz doesn’t provide any additional details on what this next World’s Edge project was.
World’s Edge was one of the few studios directly mentioned in Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty’s recent public statement titled ‘Continuing Our Reset.’ This statement confirmed that another 268 Xbox employees were losing their jobs, with Halo Studios reportedly taking the brunt of the blow as the franchise transitions to development under Activision. World’s Edge and Rare have also been moved to Activision’s remit. It’s currently unclear what Activision plans to do with World’s Edge and Rare, though it’s said to be creating a “new, purpose-built team” to develop the next Halo game.
- Released
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October 28, 2021
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Mild Blood, Mild Violence
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
