{"id":1259920,"date":"2026-03-02T23:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CvNjSm2nPAftgDj7z9ypkR"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:38:17","slug":"eso-devs-at-zenimax-reel-from-microsofts-hollow-layoff-emails-with-some-wondering-how-a-carcass-of-workers-is-supposed-to-keep-shipping-award-winning-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/eso-devs-at-zenimax-reel-from-microsofts-hollow-layoff-emails-with-some-wondering-how-a-carcass-of-workers-is-supposed-to-keep-shipping-award-winning-games\/","title":{"rendered":"ESO devs at ZeniMax reel from Microsoft’s ‘hollow’ layoff emails, with some wondering how a ‘carcass of workers’ is ‘supposed to keep shipping award-winning games’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s with precious little pleasure that I sit here and try to find a new way to say ‘the games industry has had a rough couple of years’ without cannibalising my own work\u2014if you’ve been following along, you already know the score. Mass layoffs, studio closures, and (most recently) a whopping 9,000 layoffs at Microsoft, despite CEO Phil Spencer boasting about how strong the company is looking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) developer ZeniMax formed a part of these layoffs, alongside a cancelled MMO that was apparently so good nobody could put it down<\/a>: All sacrificed at the altar of growth.<\/p>\n

Per an exhaustive interview with Game Developer<\/a>, the actual process was quick and callous, alleges an anonymous ZeniMax employee: “No Slack, email, nothing is working. We have an off-work Discord, but it’s all people freaking out with no real verifiable info.” Another describes the feeling as not dissimilar to being “run over by a truck.”<\/p>\n

It’s understandable that developers want to remain anonymous in the wake of layoffs like these, but what I find notable here is that some were happy to be named\u2014including Page Branson, who has very few kind words for the actions of Microsoft writ large, dubbing it a “betrayal of trust of the highest magnitude”.<\/p>\n

Autumn Mitchell, a member of ZeniMax’s union<\/a> alongside Branson, adds: “It’s not okay. It wasn’t normal. I don’t care how many times they do it to try and make it seem normal\u2014it’s not. The way they do it is inhumane. I don’t care how much they say that it’s dignified or they want to do it in a respectful way\u2014it’s not.”<\/p>\n

Workers with up to 15 years of experience were laid off, quickly shuttered out of Slack channels without so much as a chance to say goodbye: “Making it so that people have to rush to type a goodbye message into Slack to their colleagues that they’ve been working with on various projects, that have been making your corporation money for 15 years, is disgusting. It’s disgusting.”<\/p>\n

Mitchell, in particular, says if they had a chance to talk to Spencer directly, they’d “get on my knees and beg” him to “please talk to people and ask them what this is like on the ground level before sending out the blast emails that you do \u2026 You are too far away to have any idea how\u2014maybe not intentionally\u2014how hollow those emails are.”<\/p>\n

Microsoft has, over the past few years, quickly earned itself an EA-like reputation for being a company that swallows up promising studios and spits them out once it’s done chewing. Here’s a quick timeline:<\/p>\n