Layoffs across the industry: fear reaches The Coalition even if Gears E-Day succeeds

The video game industry is once again casting a nervous glance at the exit door. PC Gamer has published a new roundup of the sector's employment situation, and it features some heavyweight names: Supermassive Games, Ninja Theory, The Coalition and Warhorse Studios. What stands out most isn't a confirmed cut, but a fear. According to the outlet, no layoffs have been announced at The Coalition, yet part of the team working on Gears of War: E-Day believes it could be the next to fall, even if the game performs well.

The fact that the studio behind one of Xbox's most iconic franchises is living with that uncertainty says everything about where things stand right now. For years, an unwritten rule held: if your game sells, your job is safe. That deal seems to have broken down, and it doesn't just affect the people who write code or design levels. It also affects those of us who compete, stream or build communities around these games.

What you need to know

• PC Gamer includes Supermassive, Ninja Theory, The Coalition and Warhorse in its tracking of industry layoffs.
• At The Coalition, no layoffs have been announced, according to the outlet's reporting.
• Even so, developers on Gears of War: E-Day fear they could be the next ones affected.
• That fear persists even in a scenario where the game is a hit.
• Warhorse appears in the report in connection with a warning about the state of the industry.

Context: prestigious studios, anxious teams

This list isn't made up of small studios or failed projects. Supermassive made its name with the narrative horror of Until Dawn and its successors. Ninja Theory, part of Xbox, created the Hellblade series, praised for its artistic ambition. Warhorse is the home of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a series that earned a loyal fan base the hard way. And The Coalition is the custodian of Gears of War, a franchise that for years was synonymous with competitive console multiplayer.

PC Gamer's summary doesn't detail the specific scope of the situation at each studio, and we're not going to fill that gap with made-up numbers. What matters is the pattern: talent, track record and reputation no longer work as a shield. When studios with résumés like these show up in an article about layoffs, the message for the rest of the industry is unsettling.

Why The Coalition's case is different

The Coalition's situation is especially telling because we're not talking about a layoff, but about the anticipation of one. A team fearing for their jobs even if their game succeeds suggests that staffing decisions seem to depend less and less on each project's performance and more on corporate strategies made far away from the studio. It means working with a sword hanging over your head during the most demanding stretch of development.

Our take

At Underworld Lordz, we're clear on this: uncertainty is the enemy of great competitive games. A shooter like Gears doesn't end on launch day. It needs balance patches, bug fixes, stable servers, seasons and an ongoing relationship with its community. If the team that knows the game best spends its days thinking it could disappear as soon as the game ships, who guarantees that support over the medium term? For the competitive scene, a game without a team behind it is a game with an expiration date.

For content creators, the problem is similar. Committing to a game means investing hours, formats and audience. When studios are stuck in survival mode, that bet becomes a lottery: today the game is trending, and tomorrow its roadmap is frozen. The community ends up paying the price just as much as the developers.

And let's be critical: if not even success protects a team, the incentive to take risks and innovate disappears. Publishers ask for memorable games while telling their teams that nobody is indispensable. That contradiction eventually shows in what reaches our screens. We hope the E-Day team's fears don't come true, but the mere fact that they exist is already bad news.

What do you think?

You play, compete or create content around these games, so your perspective matters. Do you think instability at studios is already affecting the quality and support of competitive games, or is the impact overstated? Drop by the team chat or our Discord and let us know: would you still bet on Gears of War: E-Day knowing its own team fears for its future?