Age of Empires Studio World’s Edge Reportedly Loses About Half Its Staff in New Xbox Layoffs, Cancelling an Unannounced Project

Xbox’s restructuring wave has claimed another casualty. World’s Edge, the Microsoft studio set up to steward the Age of Empires franchise, has reportedly lost roughly half its staff in a fresh round of layoffs, and affected employees say an unannounced project was cancelled in the process.

World’s Edge Loses About Half Its Team

The cuts became public through a series of LinkedIn posts from affected staff, compiled by Kotaku and other outlets on September 24. Among those laid off is Adam Isgreen, World’s Edge’s studio creative director for 16 years, who confirmed his departure and said he’s “disappointed that this is the way the time with World’s Edge and Age ends.” Multiple reports describe the cuts as affecting roughly half of the studio’s staff, a figure that comes from employees themselves rather than an official Microsoft statement.

An Unannounced Project Cancelled

World’s Edge functions less as a traditional developer and more as a franchise steward for Age of Empires and Age of Mythology, working with external studios like Forgotten Empires, Relic Entertainment, and Tantalus Media on individual releases. Senior software engineer Andrew Martz, another affected employee, wrote on LinkedIn that “our next project was cancelled.” It’s not confirmed whether the cancelled project was a new mainline Age of Empires entry, an Age of Mythology follow-up, or something else entirely, and neither World’s Edge nor Microsoft has detailed what it was.

World’s Edge has steered the Age of Empires franchise, including its Definitive Edition remasters, since Microsoft folded the label together in 2019.

Part of a Bigger Xbox Shake-Up

The layoffs follow directly from the Xbox restructuring round announced by Chief Content Officer Matt Booty on September 22, which moved World’s Edge, Rare, and the next mainline Halo game under Call of Duty publisher Activision as part of 268 more job cuts across the company. The news also lands days after Undead Labs, the State of Decay 3 developer, confirmed its own layoffs the same day it became an independent studio. Whether Age of Empires’ next project survives the move to Activision’s oversight remains to be seen.

Keep the adventure going! Check out more Gaming News on Gamersuniverse.

Picture Source: Xbox Game Studios