We already told you Xbox laid off 268 more people and handed the Halo franchise to Activision. Now the details of who else got hit are starting to come out, and World’s Edge, the studio that steers Age of Empires, is one of the hardest hit.
Image: World’s Edge / Xbox Game Studios.
Nearly half the team, gone
The confirmation came from the studio’s own former creative director, Adam Isgreen, in a LinkedIn post. According to him, he and roughly half of World’s Edge were laid off as part of the restructuring that moved the studio out of Xbox Game Studios and under Activision, alongside Rare.
“We had some great plans for what’s next, and I hope the team that remains can rise to the occasion down the line.”
— Adam Isgreen, former World’s Edge creative director
A cancelled project
On top of the cuts, another studio engineer, Andrew Martz, wrote on his own LinkedIn that World’s Edge’s next project was cancelled as part of the restructuring. Neither Microsoft nor Activision has publicly identified what that project was, and the existing Age of Empires games have not been discontinued.
Who is World’s Edge
- Founded 2019, by Shannon Loftis, former head of publishing at Xbox Game Studios
- What it does doesn’t develop games itself, coordinates partner studios like Forgotten Empires, Relic Entertainment and Tantalus Media
- Shipped the Definitive Editions of Age of Empires I, II and III, plus Age of Empires IV and Age of Mythology: Retold
- Now part of Activision, alongside Rare and development of the next Halo
It’s a reminder that when a restructuring this size happens, the official announcement is only the first layer. The details of who actually lost their job, and what was being worked on that will never ship, usually surface later, through the affected people’s own social accounts.
Sources: Kotaku, WCCFTech, Age of Empires: World’s Edge Studio
