The Elder Scrolls Online Dev ZeniMax Online Has Been Hit With Over 200 Layoffs

ZeniMax Online, the developer behind The Elder Scrolls Online, has been hit by more than 200 layoffs as a result of widespread job losses across Xbox studios this week.

A WARN notice published by the state of Maryland revealed that a total of 213 jobs were cut by Microsoft at ZeniMax Online, while ZeniMax Media saw 166 employees laid off. Furthermore, Katherine Souza, a game designer who works on The Elder Scrolls Online, stated in a post on BlueSky that around half of the studio’s “active developers working on content” have lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, a former employee who worked on The Elder Scrolls Online took to X with the following:

I’m just so angry today. 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. I’ve been gone for a while, but talking to people today and realizing there’s really no one left and no changing it now makes my heart ache. For the people, our game, who we were as a team and a studio. This is a serious loss, and I don’t think people know how much.

In related news, it was revealed that Bethesda will be restructuring the company around its “strongest franchises,” with IGN reporting that the studio was hit hard by the layoffs and planned to focus on the likes of DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Quake, and Wolfenstein. Furthermore, multiple staff at the studio have stated that the cuts will a “substantial and cascading effect” on development of The Elder Scrolls VI, which has still yet to receive a release date eight years after it was announced.

Earlier this week, Xbox boss Asha Sharma announced that the business would have to be reset and would be cutting 3,200 jobs as a result, while some studios including Double Fine Productions were going independent. In addition, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have been sold to as-yet undisclosed buyers.

[Source – Katherine Souza on BlueSky, Andrew Young on X via VGC]