Overview
- Kevin LaChapelle confirmed on LinkedIn that he was laid off on Wednesday, ending a 37-year career at Microsoft and his role as vice president of Xbox Platform.
- Microsoft has announced a global restructuring that will eliminate 4,800 jobs, and the Xbox division cut roughly 1,600 roles immediately with about 3,200 gaming cuts planned through fiscal 2027.
- LaChapelle led the engineering teams that built Xbox Backward Compatibility, announced at E3 2015, and later led the team that developed Xbox Cloud Gaming.
- Reports say the reductions have already affected studios and engineers, with about 60–70 developers reported at Obsidian and large portions of id Software’s coding staff impacted.
- The loss of long-tenured technical leaders like LaChapelle could erode institutional knowledge on platform features and may signal further product and studio shifts to watch for as the restructuring continues.