World’s Edge, the studio working on Age of Empires, was forced to cancel its latest project after it was heavily affected by the most recent wave of layoffs at XBOX. The studio is now under Activision’s wing, alongside Halo, and has been responsible for Age of Empires since 2019.
As spotted by Polygon, World’s Edge creative director Adam Isgreen notified players of “half the studio” being laid off, including him. While he indicates the studio was generally spared, it seems enough people were let go that it had to cancel its upcoming untitled project, probably connected to Age of Empires in some way.
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Senior software engineer Andrew Martz also spoke of what happened at World’s Edge, saying that reorganizing the studio to now be part of Activision was the reason for the layoffs and the cancellation of the studio’s new game. Martz said that he landed a promotion at World’s Edge that went into effect on Sept. 15, meaning he was fired just a week after being promoted. And his wasn’t the only such case in these latest layoffs, either.
XBOX’s recent layoffs resulted in some ~270 job cuts overall, with the company saying it’s now three-quarters of the way done. I expect about a hundred or more people to lose their jobs by the time XBOX completes its “restructuring,” though I fear this process will only end up giving us infinite sequels and little to no original content, save for what XBOX does in partnership with third parties like Kojima Productions.
