Juan Vaca, the story director on the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day, is one of the hundreds of employees who are losing their jobs as part of the latest round of Xbox cuts. And heartbreakingly, Vaca was laid off just a few 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 “reset.” (The company is also moving Halo under Activision and merging its Forza teams into one studio.) Over 260 employees were laid off on Tuesday, according to Xbox, following a massive round of layoffs in July. Included in this most recent round of cuts was Vaca, who confirmed the news on social media.
“I am part of this round of Microsoft Layoffs and am open to new opportunities in games/film/TV,” posted Vaca on LinkedIn and BlueSky. “If your team needs a director/storyteller please reach out.”
Vaca joined the studio in 2022 and helped “guide narrative teams and cross-discipline 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 Tuesday’s latest round of Xbox cuts. According to a source familiar with the matter, less than a handful of people were cut at the studio for reasons unrelated to today’s wider restructuring within Xbox, and the plans around E-Day’s launch remain unchanged.
Kotaku has contacted Xbox for more information.
What makes this layoff all the 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 development of the game, which launches on October 6, is done and it is now ready to be printed on discs.
“Gears of War: E-Day has gone Gold,” posted Vaca on LinkedIn. “Excited for the world to see what the whole team’s been cooking.”
Update 9/22/2026, 3:14 p.m. ET: Added further info about the impact of the cuts.