For the first time ever, seasonal content is here for The Elder Scrolls Online. Return of the Thieves Guild, its inaugural season, has launched for the long-running MMO, something you’d expect fans would be all abuzz for—if not for the fact that ZeniMax Online Studios has been gutted as part of the mass layoffs at Xbox this week.
Yeah, the timing on this one ain’t great. The developer of the MMO, which has reportedly generated over $2 billion in its lifetime, has been hit especially hard. We learned this week that ZeniMax Online lost 213 employees this week, which when combined with more layoffs over the past 12 months, means the studio has lost more than half of the development team of TESO.
So, it’s not surprising that this massive content drop has been met with little discussion of the season itself. Instead, players have mostly been sending well-wishes to the affected development team members—occasionally with a bit of ire for Microsoft.
“Surprised there was anyone left to post this,” one commenter said in response to the Steam announcement of the season’s launch. “So sorry for you guys. Hope you can keep the game going. Or better yet, find independence from MS.”