Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios has lost almost half its staff in one fell swoop, according to industry reports, amid a wide-ranging reduction in staff numbers across Xbox’s various subsidiaries.
Upcoming job losses at Microsoft had been something of an open secret in recent days, with really the only questions being where and how severe after some previous rounds of layoffs over the past couple of years.
Unfortunately the answers to those questions appear to be “at the heart of some of Microsoft Gaming’s biggest developers” and “significant”, with Turn 10 being particularly harshly affected as close to 50% of its employees saw their contracts come to an end today.
This figure was announced by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, a well-placed industry source who’d been warning of major job losses to coincide with the end of Microsoft’s financial year on June 30. Those affected were informed today:
It’s not clear right now where in Turn 10 these layoffs will occur, but among the confirmed departures is audio expert Mike Caviezel who had only recently returned to the developer he’d left in 2014 to work on Gran Turismo Sport and Gran Turismo 7.
This could have some pretty serious consequences for the future of Forza Motorsport. The developer has never worked on another franchise, and it seems unlikely that — without additional contract workers — it can develop a new title with these new staffing levels.
However, it could continue to support the current, and eponymous, entry in the series through to whenever the end of its natural life arrives. Additionally, Turn 10’s ForzaTech underpins Forza Horizon and Fable from UK-based Playground Games. The new Fable is on its way in 2026, and Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, also announced “the next Forza” for the same year — which now seems far less likely to be a Motorsport title.
Of course Turn 10 isn’t the only studio affected by cuts, as Microsoft has reportedly dropped some 9,000 jobs across all departments, of which the Xbox division is expected to comprise around 20%. Others include Candy Crush-maker King, Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax, and even Call of Duty’s Raven Software, while entire titles have also been cancelled such as Rare’s Everwild, Perfect Dark, and an unnamed new MMO at ZeniMax.
The job losses also contrast with Microsoft’s own improving fortunes, as the gaming division reports a 5% Q3 growth in revenue, year-on-year.
