Microsoft Halved World’s Edge and Passed Age of Empires to Activision

World’s Edge lost just under half its staff on September 22, 2026, the day Xbox moved the Age of Empires studio under Activision. Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty told employees the company was eliminating 268 roles across Halo Studios, other first-party teams, and the Xbox Game Studios management layer, and that Activision would take World’s Edge and Rare.

That same morning the studio’s Age of Empires site posted that The Viking Sagas, a new expansion for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, was live. The next unannounced project inside World’s Edge did not survive the move.

Just Under Half the Studio Went on Tuesday

Adam Isgreen, the studio’s former creative director and a 16-year Microsoft veteran, posted on the ResetEra forums that World’s Edge “was not spared completely,” that “just under half the studio was let go,” and that he was included. He later wrote a longer note on LinkedIn.

I am of course disappointed that this is the way the time with World’s Edge and Age ends for myself and many of my talented teammates that were also impacted, we had some great plans for what’s next, and I hope the team that remains can rise to the occasion down the line.

Adam Isgreen, former studio creative director, on LinkedIn

Andrew Martz, a former senior software engineer, said the studio “was reorganized to be under the Activision umbrella,” that “our next project was cancelled and a large chunk of our studio was laid off,” and that he was part of that layoff. His promotion had taken effect on September 15. He was cut seven days later.

Greg Snook, a former lead principal software engineer, said he got the message while on vacation. “Like many others, I was cut loose from Microsoft today. Turns out my last day with building access is also my exact 25-year hire anniversary.”

THE TUESDAY CUTS

• World’s Edge: Just under half the studio let go, including the creative director.
• Xbox total: 268 roles removed across Halo Studios, other first-party teams, and central functions.
• FY27 target: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in July the division would reduce our team by approximately 3,200.
• Progress: Booty said the actions since July, including studio divestitures, put Xbox about three-quarters of the way through that plan.

Booty’s memo did not name World’s Edge layoffs or a cancelled game. Those details came from the people who left. Rare moved with World’s Edge. A new Activision team is to make the next Halo title, with a small group remaining at Halo Studios to support games already out. Obsidian moved under Bethesda. Playground Games and Turn 10 merged. Microsoft Casual Games moved under King.

The Viking Sagas Still Shipped That Morning

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition did not pause. The Age DE Team dated its launch post September 22, 2026, and said The Viking Sagas was out on Steam, the Microsoft Store, Xbox, and PlayStation 5, with three brand new civilizations and 15 campaign scenarios.

The new civs are the Danes, the Saxons, and the Varangians. The Vikings civ in the base game also got a rework. The campaign follows Harald Hardrada across Scandinavia, Constantinople, and the 1066 invasion of England, split into The Exiled Prince, The Hard Ruler, and The Last Viking. New regional units include the Varangian Guard, the Mounted Crossbowman, and the Longship.

The pre-order post in August named Forgotten Empires as the partner bringing the pack in. Steam’s store page for The Viking Sagas DLC on Steam lists World’s Edge beside Forgotten Empires, CaptureAge, Tantalus Media, Wicked Witch, and Feral Interactive. That credit line is the production model in miniature: World’s Edge steers, other companies build.

Players arguing on forums about three unnamed DLC slots still listed in public database dumps are watching the unpublished calendar. The pack that actually went live on September 22 is not the thing Martz said was cancelled.

Microsoft Already Closed This Studio Once

Shannon Loftis, the Xbox publishing veteran who founded World’s Edge, wrote to fans on November 15, 2019, that she had wanted to send that letter for nearly 10 years. She named Matt Booty and Phil Spencer as the executives who backed a dedicated Age studio, and she set the job as two lines: Honor the past, and bring the games into the future.

The 10-year wait was not a flourish. Microsoft acquired Ensemble Studios, the original Age of Empires developer, in 2001, then announced on September 10, 2008, that it would close the Dallas shop after Halo Wars shipped. Ensemble shut on January 29, 2009. Age of Empires creator Bruce Shelley said the team had been shocked, and that Microsoft wanted the headcount for other projects. Ensemble’s Age games had sold more than 20 million copies.

Robot Entertainment and other shops formed from that wreckage. Forgotten Empires, which had already worked on Age of Empires II expansions, kept the 1999 game alive through an HD edition and then the 2019 Definitive Edition. World’s Edge was the internal office Microsoft finally put on top of those partners. The studio was established in June 2019 and named at X019 on November 14, 2019, the same day Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition launched and Age of Empires IV showed its first trailer.

HOW AGE OF EMPIRES LOST ITS STUDIO TWICE

1. September 10, 2008: Microsoft says Ensemble will close after Halo Wars.
2. January 29, 2009: Ensemble shuts. The Age of Empires rights stay with Microsoft.
3. June 2019: Xbox forms a dedicated Age studio, later named World’s Edge.
4. November 14, 2019: World’s Edge is named in public as Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition launches.
5. July 6, 2026: Asha Sharma tells staff Xbox will cut about 3,200 roles across fiscal 2027 and calls it the most significant restructure in Xbox history, with about 1,600 roles removed that day. She also says no first-party publicly announced games are being cancelled as part of those reductions.
6. September 22, 2026: Booty moves World’s Edge under Activision. Isgreen says just under half the studio is gone. Martz says the next project is cancelled. The Viking Sagas goes live.

The 2009 closure killed a developer that made the games in-house. The 2026 cut hits a steward office that was built so Microsoft would not have to do that again. The shape is still the same: Microsoft keeps the IP, thins the internal RTS shop, and leaves the series with whoever is already shipping it.

Who Still Makes Age of Empires?

World’s Edge never claimed to be Ensemble. Loftis’s 2019 letter named Relic Entertainment, Forgotten Empires, and Tantalus as the partners on a two-track plan, remasters plus a new numbered game. Relic was the primary developer of Age of Empires IV, which launched in 2021. Forgotten Empires has been the constant on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Tantalus, Wicked Witch, CaptureAge, Climax Studios, and Feral Interactive show up across ports, cinematics, and the macOS version that arrived in May 2026.

On July 30, 2026, the official Age of Empires team said 75 million players had played Age “in one game or another.” That figure is the commercial argument for keeping the live titles funded even if the Redmond office shrinks.

WHO BUILDS THE LIVE GAMES

The July 30 post also laid out work that had not yet shipped. That remaining public slate is still the list Xbox has not withdrawn.

STILL ON THE PUBLIC 2026 LIST

• Raiders of the North: Age of Empires IV expansion adding Vikings and Scots, plus more Crucible missions, due this fall.
• The Viking Sagas: Age of Empires II pack that launched on cut day, with Danes, Saxons, and Varangians.
• The Baltic Powers: Age of Empires III pack with Danes and Poles, launched September 10.
• Mythology pass: Age of Mythology: Retold packs through 2026, including the Aztec pantheon in Obsidian Mirror.

If those dates slip, it will be because Activision changes the brief or the remaining World’s Edge producers cannot run as many partners at once. It will not be because Forgotten Empires suddenly vanished on September 22.

The Next Project Never Reached a Name

Martz’s line is the only on-the-record cancellation. He called it “our next project.” Isgreen said the team had “some great plans for what’s next” and hoped the people who stayed could “rise to the occasion down the line,” which leaves room for some of that work to continue in a smaller form. Xbox did not identify a title, a platform, or a genre.

July’s reset letter said no first-party publicly announced games were being cancelled in that round. The September cancellation can sit beside that sentence only if the killed work had not been announced, which matches every public account so far. Treating it as Age of Empires 5 is a guess. Treating it as extra campaigns for a live game is also a guess.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The cancellation: Martz said the next project was cancelled as part of the Activision reorg.
• The scale: Isgreen said just under half the studio, including himself, was let go.
• The live games: Viking Sagas launched September 22; Baltic Powers launched September 10; Raiders of the North is still dated for fall 2026.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The title: No current or former staff member has named the cancelled project in public.
• The remaining roster: Xbox has not published World’s Edge’s new headcount or which producer seats survived.
• The Activision brief: Kostich’s welcome note does not say whether the remnant will only publish live Age games or be folded into other work.

The Age of Empires series is older than Xbox. The first game shipped in 1997; the console arrived in 2001. That is why a cut at a steward studio in Redmond does not read, to long-time players, as the end of the campaigns they are still buying. It reads as Microsoft doing to the office what it already did to Ensemble, while the 1999 game gets another North Sea expansion.

A Steward Office Inside Activision

Activision president Rob Kostich put World’s Edge in the same welcome note as Halo and Rare. Microsoft bought Activision for $69 billion in 2023. Three years later the Call of Duty publisher is the landing place for Xbox’s strategy franchise, its Sea of Thieves studio, and the next Halo.

We’re thrilled to welcome Halo, Rare, and World’s Edge to Activision. It’s an honor and a responsibility that we do not take lightly. These teams and their games have inspired fans around the world for decades. To the World’s Edge and Rare teams, we can’t wait to get to work together.

Rob Kostich, Activision president, in a statement

Kostich spoke after Isgreen, Martz, and Snook were already out. The remaining World’s Edge staff now report into a publisher whose hit machine is annual shooters, not 25-year-old real-time strategy live-ops. Booty’s stated goal was fewer business units and tighter publishing. Age of Empires is a publishing problem under that logic: many SKUs, many outside developers, a small internal office.

The people who still have jobs at World’s Edge will be judged on whether The Viking Sagas keeps selling, whether Raiders of the North hits its fall window, and whether Forgotten Empires and Relic still get notes, budgets, and ship dates. The cancelled next project is the one piece of work that lived only inside that office. Ensemble learned that lesson in 2009. The difference this time is that the partners are already in the credits of the game that launched on the morning of the cuts.