Microsoft permitterer Gears of War: E-Day-story director en uke før lansering

Microsoft has laid off Juan Vaca, the story director of Gears of War: E-Day. It happened just days before the release of the game whose story he had worked on for several years. Vaca announced the layoff himself on LinkedIn.

Vaca joined The Coalition in 2022 as story director. He led the narrative team and cross-discipline groups that built E-Day's story from concept to execution. On September 17, Vaca happily announced that development on the game was complete:

Gears of War: E-Day has gone Gold. Excited for the world to see what the whole team's been cooking

But on September 22, just five days later, he shared a very different post:

I am part of this round of Microsoft Layoffs and am open to new opportunities in games/film/TV. If your team needs a director/storyteller please reach out

Vaca was one of more than 260 Xbox employees laid off on September 22 as part of a corporate reset. Microsoft announced the new round of cuts in an Xbox blog post titled "Continuing Our Reset." The company hasn't said exactly how many people were laid off at The Coalition.

Gears of War: E-Day launches on October 6, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and its system requirements are already available online. The game will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one. It costs $69.99 for the Standard Edition and $99.99 for the Premium Edition.

If you want to buy the game for less, you can do so on Eneba, where Gears of War: E-Day is already available for pre-purchase, along with previous games in the series. And with the promo code EGW5, you'll get 5% off the platform's entire catalog.

E-Day is a prequel to the original trilogy, set during Emergence Day, when the Locust first came out from underground. The main characters are a young Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago.