3D Realms co-founder George Broussard revealed to X two days ago what he had heard about the layoffs at Zenimax.
Responding to a comment that “Everyone who doesn’t work on Fallout or Elder Scrolls is out,” he replied: “Oh, is it 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 the Zenimax layoffs today (maybe Monday) but definitely very soon. It’s Friday and a holiday weekend and it’s typical to have the weekend buffer for a pr cycle.” Tthings happened. Studio chief executives attended meetings and were ordered to remain silent. Many employees may not know this (a few days ago), but perhaps by now enough internal leaks have spread to allow them to prepare.
Almost everything outside of Bethesda lost money or barely broke even/made a little for a while. The new management of MS will not care about potential, quality, legacy or anything other than profit at the moment. It will probably be a tough day/weekend, but I think events are almost in full swing here. Many truly talented people are in danger as numbers are numbers and are up against a new management team charged with profitability at all costs.
Good luck to everyone.
Zenimax is the umbrella company that includes Bethesda (Fallout), ID (Quake), Arkane (Dishonored), Machine Games (Wolfenstein), and Zenimax Online (Elder Scrolls Online).
The first reports of the potential closure of Xbox Game Studios came earlier this week, with Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games and Double Fine under threat of closure. My city also reported that Microsoft was preparing to shut down Compulsion, while Bloomberg reported that all three were negotiating their futures away from Xbox.
Contrary to what George suggests, Jason Schreier commented Blue sky: “No, the layoffs are happening after the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Right now, information is being released to the studios (and leaking) and plans are being finalized.”
Source: Reddit
