The Man Who Kept Your Old Xbox Games Alive Was Fired By Microsoft After 37 Years

The engineer who kept your old Xbox games alive has been shown the door. Kevin LaChapelle — the Microsoft veteran who built Xbox Backward Compatibility and went on to lead the team behind Xbox Cloud Gaming — confirmed on LinkedIn that he was among the thousands cut in Microsoft's July 2026 layoffs. The exit ends 37 years at the company.He broke the news himself, and he broke it gently. "I will add my name to the list of people who were laid off today at Xbox," he wrote. "This ends my 37 years at Microsoft."His fondest memory was a night on stageLaChapelle joined Microsoft in 1989 as a software design engineer and climbed to vice president, spending his final stretch as VP of Xbox Platform. His signature achievement is one millions of players use without thinking about it: backward compatibility, the feature that lets a current Xbox run games built for consoles that shipped years earlier. Think of it as the back catalogue — the reason the old records still spin on the new turntable."My fondest memories are of leading the team of very talented engineers who built the Xbox Backward Compatibility program," he wrote. One night stood above the rest. "Sitting in the auditorium when Phil [Spencer] announced the program at E3 2015 was incredible. The audience's reaction was unbelievable." The room reacted the way a crowd reacts when a band opens with the song nobody expected to hear live.He followed that act with another, leading the team that created Xbox Cloud Gaming, the service that streams games to a phone or a browser instead of a console. "I am a firm believer that all entertainment will eventually become streamed to you wherever you are," he wrote. "I look forward to watching how Xbox evolves going forward, and I wish the team nothing but success."Asked about his run, he replied that few had matched it. "I am guessing I am leaving around 40 on the company seniority list," he said, placing himself among the last of Microsoft's earliest hires still on the payroll. He declined to say more.Why Microsoft cut him: the biggest reset in Xbox historyLaChapelle was one casualty of the deepest restructuring Xbox has run. On 6 July, Microsoft confirmed about 4,800 job cuts across the company, roughly 2 per cent of its 228,000 staff. Gaming took the heaviest blow: around 3,200 roles, close to 20 per cent of Xbox, with 1,600 people let go at once and a further 1,600 due to follow through the current fiscal year.New Xbox chief Asha Sharma, who took over after Phil Spencer's retirement and Sarah Bond's departure earlier in the year, framed the cuts as a return to the racing line. "We made a bunch of bets," she told staff, "and as we did that, we inherently didn't focus on the core business... we simply spread ourselves too thin." The plan steers resources back toward the flagship Xbox console, which Sharma says drives 80 per cent of the division's business.The reset reached the studios too. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold to undisclosed buyers, while Compulsion Games and Double Fine are returning to independence. Xbox is also installing a chief operating officer for the first time, Helen Chiang, handed profit-and-loss control across content, hardware, platform and services.LaChapelle had plenty of company in the exit queue. The union at Bethesda Game Studios said its own losses ran deep — "dozens of programmers, artists, designers, and testers," many with decades at the studio.The irony sits in the timingHere is the part that stings. The reset re-centres Xbox on hardware and on the loyal players who own years of games — the exact catalogue LaChapelle spent a career keeping playable. Backward compatibility was Xbox's promise that nothing you bought would be left behind. Microsoft kept that promise to the games. It let go of the man who wrote it.He walked out on his own terms, thanking the team and wishing it well. A clean final set, no smashed guitars. The encore, this time, belongs to someone else.Frequently Asked QuestionsWho is Kevin LaChapelle?Kevin LaChapelle is a 37-year Microsoft veteran and the Xbox VP who architected Xbox Backward Compatibility and later led the team behind Xbox Cloud Gaming. He joined Microsoft in 1989 as a software design engineer and rose to vice president of Xbox Platform before being laid off in July 2026.What did Kevin LaChapelle build at Xbox?He led the engineering team that created Xbox Backward Compatibility, the feature that lets modern Xbox consoles play games made for older systems. He then led the team that built Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft's game-streaming service.Why was Kevin LaChapelle laid off?His role was eliminated in Microsoft's July 2026 restructuring of Xbox, described by the division as its most significant reset. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the company had "spread ourselves too thin" and is refocusing on its core console business, cutting about 3,200 gaming roles in the process.What did Kevin LaChapelle say on LinkedIn?He confirmed his own layoff without bitterness, writing, "This ends my 37 years at Microsoft," and calling the Backward Compatibility team his "fondest memories." He added, "I wish the team nothing but success," and said he expects all entertainment to eventually be streamed.How many people did Microsoft lay off in July 2026?Microsoft confirmed about 4,800 job cuts across the company on 6 July 2026, roughly 2 per cent of its 228,000 employees. The Xbox division accounted for around 3,200 of those roles.What is Xbox Backward Compatibility?Xbox Backward Compatibility is a feature that allows a current-generation Xbox console to play games originally released for earlier Xbox hardware. It preserves a player's existing game library across console upgrades.Which Xbox studios were affected by the 2026 restructuring?Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold to undisclosed buyers, while Compulsion Games and Double Fine are returning to independence. Bethesda Game Studios also reported deep losses among its development staff.end of article