Following last week’s brutal and massive round of layoffs across Xbox, which affected over 1,000 employees, many Elder Scrolls Online fans are worried about the future of the MMORPG. But at a recent fan event, two of the game’s directors told a popular player and Elder Scrolls community member that the game isn’t going into maintenance mode and explained that the team is now the size it was when it shipped Wrothgar and Summerset, two past expansions fans loved.
As reported by Massively Overpowered, over the weekend, during the ESO Tavern event in Germany, Elder Scrolls wiki Discord admin and popular ESO player Baratron spoke to some of the devs still working on the MMO following last week’s round of layoffs. Despite the layoffs gutting the Zenimax Online team, as reported by Kotaku, Baratron said the two leads he spoke to claimed that this isn’t the end of ESO.
“Some good news for a change,” posted Baratron on Discord. “This is important. According to both Jason Barnes (Associate Design Director) and Jessica Folsom (Associate Director of Community Management), Zenimax Online Studios is now at the same size as it was when they made both Wrothgar and Summerset. Which, as we know, are both highly acclaimed DLCs. So while the layoffs are extremely upsetting for everyone involved (of course including players), this is not necessarily the end of new content or the game going into maintenance mode.”
Baratron says the mood at the annual fan event was somber but “not a funeral.” He also explained that ESO game director Nick Giacomini and studio executive producer Susan Kath weren’t at the event specifically because they are working on the new, updated roadmap. “It really is not the end yet,” said Baratron.
On the ESO forums, community manager Kevin Gbolie confirmed what Baratron reported from the event and added that it has been a “difficult week” for those at the studio.
“The plan is still to deliver great content, and we will hopefully have an update soon,” said Gbolie. “Just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words and concern for everyone at the studio and everyone impacted by layoffs. We know that everyone appreciates it.”
Id Software posted a similar update for fans last week, asserting that after last week’s layoffs—part of new Xbox boss Asha Sharma’s massive “reset”—the studio behind Doom was now the same size it had been when it shipped Doom (2016) in an effort to make it seem like things might still work out fine. And while it likely is true that Zenimax Online and id are now roughly the same size they were when the studios shipped past successes, that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of talented, experienced people lost their jobs last week and won’t be replaced anytime soon. The fact that the same number of devs are there as when past projects shipped doesn’t mean much if those devs have to work harder with less guidance and experience.