The impact of this week’s massive wave of Xbox layoffs on individual projects and teams is starting to become clear. The latest revelation comes from multiple staff at Bethesda, who have told IGN they expect a “substantial and cascading effect” on the long in-development Elder Scrolls 6.
Per the report, anonymous employees at Bethesda Game Studios say more than 50 staff including “key, high-performing people in the trenches” have been impacted by the layoffs. These layoffs have caused morale to plummet, they say, and expect it will heighten the chances of crunch and delay the game to some degree.
“Their loss will have a substantial and cascading effect on the game and morale of this studio,” one Bethesda staff member told IGN. “It’s been a mix of every discipline: programmers, artists, and designers,” said another. “One person who’s been at the company since Morrowind was cut.” This could be referring to 27-year Bethesda veteran and lead character artist Christiane Meister, who announced via LinkedIn she had been let go by the company. She has worked on Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 3, and Fallout 4.
We knew from earlier this week that Zenimax and Bethesda were facing staff cuts, which would reportedly be followed by the studios pivoting to focus on their biggest franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein. Today’s news seems to hobble those plans, though: with a newly-reduced headcount and morale at rock bottom, I can’t imagine we’re going to see new titles from massive brands any time soon. And although executives at Bethesda have promised ‘more efficient development’ on the highly-awaited sixth game in the Elder Scrolls franchise, it’s still without a release date, not to mention veteran talent.
Today hasn’t been a good day for storied studios like Bethesda or, indeed, id Software. Earlier, we reported that the Doom and Quake studio has also been gutted, with its headcount reduced so drastically the developer may be relegated to ‘support studio’ status. This came with the cancellation of multiple projects that were being pitched.
It seems that the consequences of Xbox’s bold new strategy are as unpopular internally as they are with the rest of the video games industry. I expect we’ll see more fallout from these layoffs over the coming weeks and days. My thoughts are with everyone affected, and I wish all the developers impacted by this week’s wave of layoffs security and strength in the days ahead.
