Veteran Call of Duty developer and head of studio at the company TreyarchMark Gordon, has stepped down after an impressive 20-year career at the helm of some of the franchise's biggest hits. Mark Gordon's departure from Treyarch comes after a flurry of notable departures from various Xbox studios following the announcement that layoffs are coming to several departments.
Treyarch was one of the main development studios Call of Duty since she was tasked with porting Call of Duty 2: Big Red One on consoles, while Infinity Ward handled the original version on PC. Since then, the studio has been at the forefront of some of them Call of Duty's greatest hits and franchises, including the whole Black Ops series, which is now an anticipated release alongside Infinity Ward's Modern warfare games from year to year. Unfortunately, Call of Duty hit a little down year, s Black Ops 7 with insufficient performances among fans, but also for a down year Call of Duty it still means the game is among the most played on consoles and PC.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the Black Ops game I've always wanted
Based on the information fans have about Modern Warfare 4's story, it's quickly apparent that the game is exploring a concept that Black Ops messed up.
Longtime developer Treyarch is leaving after a legendary 20-year long career
Announced on Twitter on June 15, 2026, developer Mark Gordon has stepped down from his role as head of studio at Treyarch after a whopping 22 years with the company. A post on Treyarch's official Twitter account states that Gordon's work includes some of these Call of Dutygreatest hits incl Call of Duty 2: Big Red One in 2005, A world at warand whole Black Ops streak that culminated recent Black Ops 7. In his place will be Co-Studio Heads Kevin Hendrickson of Treyarch and Yale Miller, who have been with the company for about ten years. No specific reason was given as to why Gordon is leaving, other than that he would like to “focus on his next chapter”.
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The details of this departure are vague, and it could very well be that Mark Gordon felt 22 years was enough time at Treyarch, but it comes at an uncertain time for the studios currently under the Xbox wing. After a pretty great showing at the 2026 Xbox Games Showcase, several reports have come out stating that Xbox will be planning major layoffs in the coming weeks as the company restructures under its new CEO, Asha Sharma. According to some reports, Xbox is planning to significantly downsize, or even close entire studios. In the days since the news broke, longtime Xbox Game Studios developers have begun leaving for reasons that are currently unclear or unknown, much like Mark Gordon.
In addition to Mark Gordon's departure from Treyarch, Xbox Game Studios boss Craig Duncan has also left his post, along with chief of staff Louise O'Connor, both of whom had long stints at Rare before joining Xbox Game Studios. As for the actual studio closure, the news looks pretty grim for some of Xbox's smaller development teams. South of midnight Compulsion Games is reportedly on the way to closing or negotiating with Microsoft about its future, with Ninja Theory and Double Fine also potentially on the table.
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Additionally, if the potential closure of some of Xbox's most famous studios isn't enough, Microsoft apparently believes that the entire Xbox is on the table for sale, leading to many questions about the future of the Xbox business. Mark Gordon's departure from Treyarch may be unluckily timed, but given the current circumstances, fans may be wondering if anything is on the way at Treyarch, especially after a lackluster year with 2025 Black Ops 7. It's a potentially scary and transformative time for Xbox and the studios under its umbrella, and hopefully it all boils down to a better Xbox business model in the future.
