Gears of War: E-Day is still locked for October 6, 2026, but the studio’s story director is already gone. Juan Vaca, story director at The Coalition, posted on LinkedIn that he was laid off as part of Microsoft’s latest wave — just five days after celebrating that E-Day had gone gold, GamesRadar reports.
Small Coalition cut, separate from the bigger Xbox reset narrative
A Kotaku source cited by GamesRadar says a small number of people were cut at The Coalition, with reasons reportedly not tied to the wider Xbox restructuring that dominated headlines a day earlier. GamesRadar notes Microsoft is still working through its planned FY27 reduction wave; this Coalition story is a studio-level human beat about a gold-complete launch title, not a claim that E-Day itself has slipped.
Vaca’s earlier LinkedIn post — roughly five days before the layoff note — celebrated that the team’s work had gone gold and that he was excited for players to see what they had built. The October 6 street date remains the published launch.
Why this wire is its own story
This is distinct from the already-covered Xbox studio-reset package that focused on the larger headcount figure, Halo’s Activision move, and related studio fate notes. The material news here is personal and local: a story director cut days after gold on a game still less than two weeks from launch, inside a small Coalition reduction that sources say sits apart from that wider restructuring narrative.
