The co-founder 3D Realms, George Broussard, took to X two days ago to reveal what he had heard about redundancies at Zenimax.
Replying to a comment that “Anyone not working on Fallout or Elder Scrolls is out” he said,”Oh is that public now? That’s exactly what I heard a few days ago.”
He has now provided a scathing update, which you can read below.
“I would expect news on Zenimax layoffs today (maybe Monday) but definitely very soon. It’s Friday and a holiday weekend and it’s typical to have the buffer of the weekend for a pr cycle. Things have been happening. GM’s of studios have been in meetings and told to keep things quiet. A lot of employees may not know (as of a couple days ago) but by now maybe enough internal leaks have spread to allow them to brace.
Pretty much everything outside of Bethesda has lost money or barely broken even/made a little for a while. New MS mgmt won’t care about potential, quality, legacy or anything other than profit right now. It’s likely to be a rocky day/weekend but I think events are nearly in full swing here. A lot of really talented people are at risk due to numbers being numbers and colliding with a new mgmt team tasked with profitability at all costs.
Good luck to all.”
Zenimax is the the umbrella company that includes Bethesda (Fallout), ID (Quake), Arkane (Dishonored), Machine Games (Wolfenstein) and Zenimax Online (Elder Scrolls Online).
Initial reports about Xbox game studios potentially shutting down came at the start of the week, with Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, and Double Fine facing closure. Kotaku also reported that Microsoft is set to close down Compulsion, while Bloomberg reported that all three are bargaining for their future away from Xbox.
Contrary for what George suggests, Jason Schreier commented on BlueSky: “No, the layoffs are happening after the end of fiscal year on June 30. Right now information is being disseminated to studios (and leaking out) and plans are being finalized.”
Source: Reddit
