If you’re a fan of The Elder Scrolls Online, then you may want to brace yourself for a bleaker future, as the team at Zenimax Online Studios has been “decimated” by Xbox’s recent layoffs.
As we reported earlier with regards to both Obsidian and id Software, Microsoft may have avoided studio closures, but its 1,600 job losses this week has cut many of its studios to the bone.
Remember, a further 1,600 roles will be terminated over the course of the coming year, downsizing Microsoft’s gaming division by 20%.
Zenimax Online Studios already lost staff last year, but according to Kotaku, this latest blow means the future of The Elder Scrolls Online is unclear. While the extent of the layoffs hasn’t been revealed, it’s been reported that as much as half of the studio may be gone.
Such is the scale of the cuts that community manager Jessica Folsom has said the content “roadmaps we previously shared will be shifting” while it steps back and straightens out its plans for the future.
To be fair, The Elder Scrolls Online has enjoyed a pretty prosperous life cycle since debuting in 2014, and – coincidentally – is scheduled to introduce its new seasonal update structure later this week. Presumably, that rollout will be unaffected by these changes.
But it’ll be interesting to see how Zenimax Online Studios is able to continue supporting this game with approximately half its staff gone.