According to a report published today by Eurogamer, developers at Canadian studio The Coalition fear that Xbox‘s axe will fall on them shortly after the launch of Gears of War: E-Day (which is out today for owners of the Premium Edition, while the official release is set for October 6).

Over the summer, the studio had largely been spared from Microsoft’s massive cuts, and the prevailing internal feeling was cautious optimism that Xbox remained invested in its long-term future. According to Eurogamer, that feeling abruptly changed this month.

Last week, Juan Vaca (Gears of War: E-Day’s story director) announced he had been laid off as part of Microsoft’s second wave of job cuts, barely two weeks before the game’s release. A source speaking to Kotaku claimed that a handful of other developers had been let go shortly before him, for reasons unrelated to the wider Xbox layoffs, and multiple sources told Eurogamer that additional staff were quietly let go in recent weeks.

One developer described Vaca’s exit as very demoralizing, and said the team is now on edge. Staff had expected cuts to arrive after launch, but now they’re bracing for the next wave, or even for The Coalition to be reorganized under Activision later this year. Given that Xbox has just moved Halo, Rare, and World’s Edge under Activision, that’s hardly an unreasonable fear.

The recent layoffs have also raised a more specific worry: money. Like many studios, The Coalition offers a Metacritic bonus tied to E-Day’s critical reception, which Eurogamer confirmed via an internal email. The terms are standard, but one stipulation has become a major source of anxiety: developers must be full-time employees at the time of payout, which leadership has indicated will occur near the end of October.

Eurogamer reports that recently laid-off staff like Vaca, who remain on payroll until then, will still receive their bonuses if the game hits its targets, even though the assumption among the team had been that they wouldn’t. What remains unclear is what would happen to current developers if they were laid off immediately after E-Day’s release, before the payout lands.

According to Eurogamer’s sources, being laid off just before the bonus has become something of a morbid joke among the team, and the possibility is now understandably their biggest concern. Some developers suspect Microsoft might try to avoid paying out at all. As one source put it, “It’s hard to believe anything Microsoft leadership says anymore.”

With hundreds more Xbox cuts still planned before the end of the fiscal year as part of the company’s reset, those fears may not be unfounded. Perhaps a deciding factor will be the game’s commercial performance, though that’s something we’ll have to infer, since Xbox stopped reporting unit sales long ago, preferring to focus on player figures (which, however, are inflated by Game Pass).

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.

In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.

Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.

His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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