Some new reports from reliable insiders suggest that an incoming wave of significant layoffs at Microsoft could affect Turn 10 Studios, the longstanding steward of the Forza Motorsport franchise. While Turn 10 is Xbox's oldest homegrown first-party studio - founded all the way back in 2001 - the Forza Motorsport developer could face hefty job cuts as early as next week.
This development comes just over a week after news broke surrounding Microsoft's most recent wave of layoffs, where the tech giant reportedly plans to axe thousands of sales positions in July 2025 and shift the workload to third-party firms. These job cuts aren't even the worst this year, though, as Microsoft eliminated 3 percent of its global workforce last month - impacting roughly 6,000 positions - in the interest of minimizing redundancies. While the Microsoft layoffs so far have been focused on jobs across the broader organization, it appears the attention is now shifting to the company's gaming division.
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PostsJust two days ago, reputable sources reported that sizable layoffs will hit the Xbox division next week. Over on Bluesky, a more recent update from games industry veteran and Duke Nukem co-creator George Broussard warned that up to 2,000 Xbox jobs may be on the chopping block - accounting for about 10-20 percent of the division's entire workforce. Now, The Verge's Tom Warren has chimed in with some fresh reporting, claiming that among the widespread inbound Xbox layoffs, Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios is "bracing for cuts."
Forza Motorsport's Lukewarm Reception May Be the Reason Behind the Rumored Turn 10 Layoffs
News has reported imminent Xbox layoffs but I'm hearing internal developer stuff where people at most studios are anxious and worried. Word that entire studios may be shuttered. Expectation is 1000-2000 people. Xbox unit has about 10k people in it?, so 10-20%? Good luck to all involved. Brutal.— George Broussard (@georgebsocial.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 7:38 AMTurn 10 was internally founded at Microsoft over 24 years ago, and has exclusively worked on the Forza Motorsport series, with credits in the open-world Forza Horizon titles as well. Since 2005, Turn 10 has released nine Forza Motorsport games, with the latest one having launched in October 2023. Although 2023's Forza Motorsport continues to be supported by Turn 10, fans of the franchise haven't taken to the circuit racer all that favorably due to its RPG-like progression system, missing split-screen multiplayer mode, and more. Notably, Microsoft hasn't even announced Xbox Game Pass player numbers for Forza Motorsport.
CloseBy contrast, Playground Games' mega-popular Forza Horizon 5 racked up 10 million players within a week of its launch in late 2021, and still attracts players by the truckload thanks to its recent PS5 launch. As of May 2025, Forza Horizon 5 has exceeded 45 million cumulative players, a milestone that's nothing short of colossal. Microsoft may be comparing these metrics to those of Forza Motorsport to inform its alleged decision to conduct layoffs at Turn 10, which is quite unfortunate for the longstanding Xbox team.
