Yesterday’s layoffs at Xbox took, and will continue to take, a terrible toll. Some trumpeted the fact that no studios were closed, although the practical impact of spinning them out to independence or new ownership remains to be seen, but that has no bearing on the blow to morale caused by such deep cuts to long-standing dev teams.
One former Elder Scrolls Online developer put words to those feelings in a short, poignant thread on X, lamenting the state of the game and developer ZeniMax Online Studios, which was reportedly purged of half its employees in the layoffs.
“I’m just so angry today,” wrote Andrew Young, a content designer on Elder Scrolls Online who worked at ZeniMax Online Studios from 2012-2024. “People will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making ESO or how we basically funded other failing projects while never getting enough resources to really keep up with our release cadence. The team deserved much better.”
The Elder Scrolls Online has had a tough go of it over the years. Its launch in 2014 did not make a great impression, and while the shift to Tamriel Unlimited a year later turned things around, it always felt to me a bit like an afterthought MMO: The second cousin to World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 whose face you recognize in photos, but whose name you can’t quite put your finger on.