{"id":85832,"date":"2026-07-13T10:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=85832"},"modified":"2026-07-13T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:40:10","slug":"the-elder-scrolls-online-dev-zenimax-online-studios-insists-its-now-the-same-size-it-was-when-it-made-much-loved-dlcs-moves-to-reassure-worried-fans-after-xbox-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=85832","title":{"rendered":"The Elder Scrolls Online Dev ZeniMax Online Studios Insists It&#8217;s Now the Same Size It Was When It Made Much-Loved DLCs, Moves to Reassure Worried Fans After Xbox Layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<section data-transform=\"mobile-ad-break\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/the-elder-scrolls-online\">The Elder Scrolls Online<\/a> developer ZeniMax Online Studios has moved to reassure concerned fans that it is still committed to the game despite the impact of significant layoffs at Xbox.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma started her \u201creset\u201d of Microsoft\u2019s gaming business by cutting 1,600 staff, with another 1,600 to go over the course of the next 12 months. Bethesda was hit hard by the layoffs. A <a href=\"https:\/\/labor.maryland.gov\/employment\/pdf\/warn-log-2026.pdf?=v5\">Maryland WARN Act notice<\/a> shows 213 employees were laid off from ZOS&#8217;s office in Cockeysville, MD, and 166 from ZeniMax Media Inc. in Rockville, MD, for a total of 379. While it\u2019s difficult to pin down exactly what the affected staff were working on at these studios because there are blended teams across Bethesda locations, the WARN numbers undoubtedly make for difficult reading.<\/p>\n<p>As revealed by IGN last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/we-need-to-change-course-bethesda-boss-tells-staff-the-company-must-focus-on-our-strongest-franchises-as-xbox-layoffs-hit-hard\">in an email to Bethesda staff sent following Sharma&#8217;s memo on Monday<\/a>, Bethesda boss Jill Braff said the layoffs and change in strategy \u201creflect the realities of our industry and business \u2013 and our responsibility to ensure Bethesda is operating from a more stable foundation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be successful in the future, we need to change course,\u201d Braff continued. \u201cWe must strengthen our business, return<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios has moved to reassure concerned fans that it is still committed to the game despite the impact of significant layoffs at Xbox. Last week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma started her \u201creset\u201d of Microsoft\u2019s gaming business by cutting 1,600 staff, with another 1,600 to go over the course&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":85834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85836,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85832\/revisions\/85836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}