Games launched under the Forza banner have been produced by Turn 10 Studios since the beginning, going back 20 years to the original release of Forza Motorsport in 2025. Turn 10 is a subsidiary of Microsoft and has been since day one, which means that larger layoffs at Microsoft have now impacted employees there as well, with numerous artists and producers announcing on LinkedIn that they were let go this week.
A review of the company’s LinkedIn page shows the “#opentowork” banner across a large number of employees, largely made up of artists and producers, although some developers are there as well. More than a dozen employees have the banner, and many are posting stories on LinkedIn announcing that they’ve been let go as part of the larger Microsoft initiative.
One “Look Development Artist” posted yesterday that she was a part of the layoffs:
Such a sad day for for all the devs that were affected. I was also part of those affected by layoffs today and it’s crazy to think how much is gone in just an instant.
I joined Turn 10 Studios right after college, hitting the eb and flow as I grew and moved through the studio. Every single person I worked with was as aspirational, as they were helpful and wizards at what they do.
Another post, from a 3D Environment Artist, had a similar tone:
I was part of today’s layoffs at Turn 10 Studios. It’s very disappointing how it ended, but I’m very grateful I had a chance to work with some of the best people I’ve met in my life to ship a video game title. Turn 10 was where I had both my first job and internship as an environment artist, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you all for good memories and giving me this opportunity to launch my career 🙂
Microsoft is not commenting on the exact scope of the layoffs, but did provide some details to Jason Schrier at Bloomberg:
The company’s gaming units were expected to be told throughout the day how many jobs would be cut at each office. The division had about 20,000 employees as of January 2024.
“To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness,” Microsoft Gaming Chief Executive Officer Phil Spencer said in an email to staff seen by Bloomberg News.
Spencer didn’t share specific numbers but said that impacted employees will be “given priority review” if they apply to open jobs elsewhere within the company. He wrote that Microsoft’s “platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger,” but that “we must make choices now for continued success in future years and a key part of that strategy is the discipline to prioritize the strongest opportunities.”
Turn 10 Studios has largely bounced back and forth between the motorsport-focused Forza games and the more open-world adventure racing games under the Forza Horizon banner. The most recent of the former was Forza Motorsport, which came out in 2023. The lack of a newer game is likely related to the company’s porting over of Forza Horizon 5 to the PS5, which is the first for the series.
The Verge has the number of employees being let go at “more than 70,” which leaves “enough people behind to keep Forza Motorsport up and running.” Turn 10 isn’t the only studio in the Microsoft universe of game developers that’s been hit, but the number seems proportionally high. What the future of the brand looks like without more support remains unclear. I have reached out to Microsoft for more information and will update it if/when I get it.
Top graphic image: Microsoft
Well, there go my hopes for a surprise Forza Horizon 6 release this year…
Hope the devs band together and make a new racing sim/city traffic story game. I mean I’ve played NFS since it had “The” in the title. We need more of those Beams and City Cars to add more variety to GT and FH.
How about a GTA style Uber driver thing?
I’d recommend listening to Brad Sams or Paul thurott about this. Typically Microsoft lays off before or after July because of the fiscal new year, but this year seems much worse.
Tempted to ship my Xbox back to Microsoft telling them that I’ve laid off my Xbox and I’m all in on Sony now.
All I know is, Microsoft needs to bring back Project Gotham Racing.
I loved PGR racing the best. Not the most realistic, but it was so fun. I bought the steering wheel for the Xbox360 just for this game and its sequel.
Just wondering if Forenza has been around that long are their cars using an older platform than real cars when it would be easier to change in a game? If you are going to accept video games with cars as car news you have to evaluate them as well.
Cars are crazy expensive (time, which translates to money) to model. The last game I worked on where we needed car props, we were severely limited by the amount of cars we could include before I had the team create modular vehicles for a sense of variety. Got like 10 cars for the price of one and a half lol.
The end result was a modular system that has very much Torch vibes when he publishes his awesome car ideas.
Maybe it’s just me but if I’m being let go as part as a mass layoff my LinkedIn post might be a bit different in announcing my looking for work intro. Maybe I’m sad to announce after carrying the load for 70 people in the company at a salary far below my contribution the company has decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you need a quality programmer contact me every one else just sucks.
But that’s just me. And I have used a similar line in an interview jokingly of course
I knew I should have gotten a PlayStation and gone for grand turismo, darn…
I think someone at The Administration got wind of how realistically you can transport people quickly across lesser-known parts of the Mexican countryside, and got a little spooked.
I mean, if Nissan can find race car drivers using video games…
MS bought studios, so it has to kill more of its own.
More importantly kids today can’t afford a real car and thus it’s more about a 20yr old camary that a 20 year old Ferrari you might get down the timeliness if you did everything right in life. So even the fantasy is busted in a world of today. Million dollar supercars are nice but they make a Ferrari a normal person might get stupid slow
We need more Italian plumbers.