Last week’s sweeping Xbox layoffs have affected The Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online, a studio that had already faced cuts a year ago. This has reignited fears amongst the community that the game is being moved into ‘maintenance mode’, in which no substantial new adventures or updates will be developed for it.
Similar fears erupted at the beginning of the year after the previous huge round of layoffs, when ZeniMax shifted from developing expansions for the MMO to smaller seasonal updates, though it insisted this was unrelated to the cuts at the time.
Massively Overpowered collected comments made by key members of the MMO’s development team, which have once again sought to assure the game’s playerbase that TESO is not winding down.
“According to both Jason Barnes (Associate Design Director) and Jessica Folsom (Associate Director of Community Management), ZeniMax Online Studios is now at the same size as it was when they made both Wrothgar and Summerset,” Baratron, the admin of the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages wiki Discord, shared from an in-person event in Germany. For reference, the massive Summerset expansion pack (2018) is one of the most celebrated add-ons released for the game. “While the layoffs are extremely upsetting for everyone involved (of course including players), this is not necessarily the end of new content or the game going into maintenance mode… It really is not the end yet,” she added.
It was also reported that game director Nick Giacomini and executive producer Susan Kath are now working on a revised roadmap for the game, which reflects what the team can actually do, following the cuts. Community manager ZOS_Kevin confirmed that bit of news via the official forums: “The plan is still to deliver great content, and we will hopefully have an update soon. Just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words and concern for everyone at the studio and everyone impacted by layoffs. We know that everyone appreciates it.”
At the time of writing, it seems Xbox and Bethesda Softworks‘ plans moving forward include a renewed focus on franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but with all eyes now on TES 6 – which is also dealing with substantial cuts – TESO’s future wasn’t looking as bright last week. It remains to be seen what shape it’ll take, but a game that had brought in over $2b in revenue by 2024 surely deserves better.
