Following the announcement of 3,200 layoffs at Xbox for fiscal year 2027, the most significant in the brand’s history, reports emerged courtesy of Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier about the state of ZeniMax. While the unit isn’t being restructured to only focus on Fallout and The Elder Scrolls at the cost of other IP, significant layoffs are reportedly hitting id Software and ZeniMax Online Studios.
“Studios in the Bethesda organization like id Software (Doom) and ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online) are not shutting down but are cutting a significant number of staff this morning, per sources,” says Schreier on BlueSky.
The report is especially heartbreaking considering id is releasing the Revelations expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages tomorrow. Offering 10 to 12 hours of playtime, it promises an extensive range of challenges, gorgeous environments, and the new Chain Spear for a higher skill ceiling. How this will affect the future of the franchise, much less other IPs under id, remains to be seen.
As for ZeniMax Online Studios, this is the second time it’s seen layoffs in the last year. The last time saw the team behind Blackbird laid off, and the project cancelled. Since then, it’s introduced significant changes to the long-running MMO, including Seasons, a refresh for the Dragonknight class, the Challenge difficulty system, and more. Time will tell how these layoffs affected content delivery, especially with its last Chapter expansion, Gold Road, released in June 2024. As always, stay tuned for updates.
