Microsoft has laid off the story director of Gears of War: E-Day days after he confirmed that the game has gone gold.

Xbox announced its latest wave of redundancies that continue the planned 3,200 jobs cut throughout FY27 confirmed earlier this year. Xbox confirmed 268 job losses yesterday, including at Halo Studios, whose franchise has been moved to Activision, and unfortunately, there are more job losses across Xbox studios not outlined by Microsoft.

Juan Vaca, story director at The Coalition, posted on his LinkedIn account that he is among those losing their job as part of the latest wave of Microsoft layoffs. Vaca acted as the story director on Gears of War: E-Day, which is set to release in less than two weeks.

In a sad turn of events, this post came just five days after a previous post from Vaca, celebrating that “Gears of War: E-day has gone gold” and that he’s “excited for the world to see what the whole team’s been cooking.”

According to a Kotaku source, a small number of people were cut from The Coalition, with reasons not related to the wider Xbox restructuring. Gears of War: E-Day is set to release on October 6, 2026, so just why Xbox is laying off prominent members of staff this close to launch is unknown.

Microsoft is still planning to cut over 1,000 jobs before the end of the fiscal year, with discussions over Dishonored maker Arkane‘s potential buyout still ongoing, while discussions over the closure of Ninja Theory are set to begin after two potential buyers fell through for the studio. This follows what have been yearly batches of layoffs since Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard in 2023.