Bethesda was hit hard by this week’s Xbox layoffs, with cuts to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda Game Studios, Doom developer id Software, and The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios, among other parts of the business.
A Maryland WARN Act notice shows 213 employees were laid off from ZOS’s office in Cockeysville, MD, and 166 from ZeniMax Media Inc. in Rockville, MD, for a total of 379. 96 staff who worked at id Software’s office in Richardson, Texas, were cut, alongside a further 40 remote roles. While it’s difficult to pin down exactly what the affected staff were working on at these studios because there are blended teams across Bethesda locations, the WARN numbers undoubtedly make for difficult reading.
The restructure at Xbox — 1,600 staff lost their jobs on Monday, with another 1,600 to go over the course of the next 12 months — has called into question the future of not just the studios Microsoft has on its books, but the quality of the games it’s working on. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s strategy is clear: studios will collaborate more closely from now on, with a focus on bigger franchises such as Halo, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls. As revealed by IGN this week, in an email to Bethesda staff sent following Sharma’s memo on Monday, Bethesda boss Jill Braff said the layoffs and change in strategy “reflect the realities of our industry and business – and our responsibility to ensure Bethesda is operating from a more stable foundation.”
“To be successful in the future, we need to change course,” Braff continued. “We must strengthen our business, return to sustainable growth, and ensure we can continue investing in our franchises and our players. I know that doesn’t make a day like today any easier.”
But what does that actually mean for Bethesda going forward? Without naming games, Braff said “to best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what’s next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole.”
“From there, we’ll align the right talent, technology, and resources across the organization to deliver on those priorities,” Braff added.
While Xbox sorts its new strategy out, remaining staff are left to wonder if they will be next as part of future rounds of layoffs. After all, Microsoft still has over 1,000 Xbox staff to cut before the end of its financial year. It is an anxious time across Xbox, as it is across the wider video game industry.
The Elder Scrolls 6 — what’s happening with it?
This week, IGN reported on concern expressed by staff at BGS that the Xbox layoffs would have a “substantial and cascading effect” on the development of The Elder Scrolls 6. Morale took a hit, we heard, and there were fears of future development crunch. The Elder Scrolls 6 is reportedly at least two more years away from release, despite being announced in 2018, and there are fears it could even be delayed.
“There is a fear that we are going to be replaced by cheaper, contracted labor, or we will hire folks to replace them that will need to be onboarded (our tools are proprietary, other devs aren’t going to know how they work) resulting in more delays, and we’ll need to crunch to make up the time,” one Bethesda developer told IGN.
“We’ve all been very excited and hyped for TES 6 and this has had a crushing effect on morale,” said another staff member. “We were already running a tight ship and are worried about this delaying the game (though a final release date was not yet chosen as far as we know).”
Meanwhile, the BGS union, OneBGS, plans to march outside the studio’s four offices (Rockville, Austin, Dallas, and Montreal) on July 15. In a note sent to IGN, the union said 35 positions at BGS were cut in the U.S. and at least 12 more in Montreal, Canada.
Read Full Article At Source
