Xbox’s latest round of cuts reportedly hit World’s Edge, the Microsoft studio that oversees Age of Empires, much harder than Matt Booty’s company memo suggested. According to posts from two former staff members, collected by PC Gamer, just under half the studio was let go and its next project was canceled.
What former staff said: Adam Isgreen, World’s Edge’s former creative director, wrote on ResetEra that the studio was “not spared completely—just under half the studio was let go—myself included.” Andrew Martz, a former senior software engineer, wrote on LinkedIn that “as part of that reorg, our next project was canceled and a large chunk of our studio was laid off. I was part of that layoff.”
Those are first-person accounts from people who were there, but they are not an official Microsoft statement. Microsoft has not publicly confirmed the share of World’s Edge staff affected, and it has not named the canceled project.
Context: The posts follow Xbox’s September 22 reset, when Booty’s memo confirmed 268 roles eliminated and moved Halo under Activision. World’s Edge got only a brief mention in that memo. PC Gamer reports the studio now answers to Activision alongside Rare. For the full picture of that announcement, see our earlier report: Xbox confirms 268 cuts as Halo moves to Activision.
Why it matters: World’s Edge has steered Age of Empires through one of the strategy genre’s best comebacks, including the Definitive Editions, Age of Empires IV, and Age of Mythology: Retold. Losing close to half the team, plus whatever it was building next, raises real questions about how fast new Age content can arrive, even as live support for the existing games is expected to continue.
What we are not saying: we are not reporting an exact number of people laid off, any dollar figures, or the name of the canceled game. None of those have been made public. Everything above about the size of the cut and the cancellation is reported through Isgreen’s and Martz’s posts, not confirmed by Microsoft.
