The Coalition staff reportedly fear being cut before Gears of War: E-Day's bonus pays out
Developers at the Gears studio told Eurogamer they expect layoffs once E-Day ships, and that a Metacritic-linked bonus is not due until the end of October. Microsoft declined to comment.
Gears of War: E-Day reaches early access on October 1 and launches fully on October 6. According to a report from Eurogamer, picked up by VGC, some of the people who made it are spending launch week worrying about whether they will still have jobs by the time they are paid for it.
What the report says
Eurogamer spoke to multiple anonymous staff at The Coalition. Their account, as relayed by VGC, is that the studio had felt comparatively insulated from the layoffs running through the rest of the games industry, and that the assumption internally was that if cuts came at all they would come after release. That confidence has reportedly gone.
The specific trigger named in the reporting is the departure of story director Juan Vaca, who was laid off in the week before the game shipped. Staff also point to speculation about a wider reorganisation touching Activision as a reason the mood has changed.
The bonus problem
The money is the sharpest part of it. E-Day carries a performance bonus tied to the game's Metacritic score, and the report says it is not expected to pay out until near the end of October. Staff must be employed full time at the point of payment to qualify, which turns the gap between launch and payday into a real financial risk for anyone cut in between.
VGC relays that some of Eurogamer's sources are sceptical Microsoft would honour the bonuses at all, while Eurogamer's own reporting indicates laid-off staff should still receive the payments if the score targets are hit. Those two things are not the same claim, and nobody at Microsoft has clarified which is right.
Why it matters
Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that it was cutting 268 roles and consolidating studios as part of what it called a continuing reset. Against that backdrop, a bonus structure that requires a developer to still be on the payroll three weeks after their game ships is the kind of detail that explains why launch week at a first-party Xbox studio no longer feels like a celebration.
Why it matters
A Metacritic-linked bonus that only pays out weeks after launch, at a publisher mid-restructure, puts the people who finished the game in the worst possible position.