Xbox backward compatibility architect reportedly among Microsoft gaming layoffs
Kevin LaChapelle, the architect of Xbox backward compatibility, is among the layoffs at Microsoft's gaming division, which also cut roughly 25% of Obsidian staff.
The engineer credited as the architect of Xbox backward compatibility, Kevin LaChapelle, is reportedly among the employees let go as Microsoft cuts thousands of jobs across its gaming business. The same restructuring wave has also slashed roughly 25% of staff at Obsidian Entertainment, according to a Kotaku report. Between 60 and 70 Obsidian employees, many of them senior, are said to have lost their roles.
LaChapelle’s work made it possible for Xbox One and Series consoles to run a large library of original Xbox and Xbox 360 games, a preservation effort that retro gamers have leaned on heavily. Seeing the person most associated with that program exit under these circumstances doesn’t inspire confidence about where backward compatibility sits in Microsoft’s current priorities. Obsidian, a studio with a deep RPG pedigree stretching back to the Black Isle days, now faces an uncertain future after The Outer Worlds 2 failed to match its predecessor’s sales.
Layoffs this deep always land hardest on the people who built the things we value. When one of those people is the person who kept two decades of Xbox games playable on modern hardware, it stings a little more.