The mass layoffs that have hit Xbox studios this week will have a “substantial and cascading effect” on production of The Elder Scrolls VI, a number of Bethesda staff members have revealed to IGN.
Current and former members of the studio have spoken on condition of anonymity, stating that Bethesda Game Studios itself has been hit by more than 50 layoffs, including “key, high-performing people in the trenches” that are working on the next chapter in the fantasy-RPG series.
“Their loss will have a substantial and cascading effect on the game and morale of this studio,” commented one staff member. “It’s been a mix of every discipline: programmers, artists, and designers,” another employee continued. “One person who’s been at the company since Morrowind was cut.”
“There is a fear that we are going to be replaced by cheaper, contracted labor, or we will hire folks to replace them that will need to be onboarded (our tools are proprietary, other devs aren’t going to know how they work) resulting in more delays, and we’ll need to crunch to make up the time,” a Bethesda employee added.
Another staff member added, “We’ve all been very excited and hyped for TES 6 and this has had a crushing effect on morale. We were already running a tight ship and are worried about this delaying the game (though a final release date was not yet chosen as far as we know).”
Earlier this week it was state by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier that The Elder Scrolls VI is still at least 2-3 years away, despite the fact it’s been eight years since the game was first announced.
Bethesda boss Jill Braff revealed in an email to staff earlier this week that the company plans to restructure its operations around its “biggest franchises,” which preceded a report by IGN that Bethesda was planning to focus on DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Quake, and Wolfenstein going forward.
The job losses at Xbox have impacted many studios, some of which are being sold off or plan to go independent. For example, Double Fine Productions is now breaking off from Xbox entirely, while Ninja Theory has been sold to an as-yet unannounced new owner. Obsidian meanwhile has lost 25% of its staff, while id Software has been effectively reduced to “support studio size” as a result of the cuts.
The Elder Scrolls VI has yet to attract a release date and we don’t even know what platforms it will launch on.
[Source – IGN]