Elder Scrolls Online - Post-Launch Layoffs

Gamasutra has news that Zenimax Online has fired an unknown amount of staff responsible for Elder Scrolls Online. Here are the details straight from the website.

Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online Studios has suffered an unknown number of layoffs today as the studio restructures to support the game in the wake of its April launch.

Parent company Zenimax Media has not disclosed exactly how many people lost their jobs, but a company representative confirmed the layoffs and gave the following statement to Gamasutra by way of explanation:


"As is the norm for games of this type, we had ramped up a large workforce to develop a game of vast scale, and ramped up our customer service to handle the expected questions and community needs of The Elder Scrolls Online at launch. Now that we are nearly 6 months post launch, we have a thriving online community in a game that runs smoothly. We have adjusted staffing to meet the ongoing needs of the studio, which continues to operate with a large work force."

"We remain strongly committed to The Elder Scrolls Online, and continue to invest heavily to develop new content for PC and Mac players, prepare the game for its console launch, and handle our planned expansion into important international territories. As for customer service, we continue to operate large support centers in Hunt Valley, MD and Galway, Ireland."

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More information.

While it could be "standard practice" - this kind of news is always a bit unpleasant and a cause for concern. I'm still hoping the game will have a brighter future than many seem to want.

It has a lot of potential, that's for sure.

I'm still a subscriber, even though I haven't played in a while. Hopefully, this doesn't impact its future development.

DArtagnan said:

While it could be "standard practice" - this kind of news is always a bit unpleasant and a cause for concern. I'm still hoping the game will have a brighter future than many seem to want.

It has a lot of potential, that's for sure.

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I expect it has to do with the game not performing to expectation.

I don't really see a reason for concern about it though, expectations and achievable reality seem to be strongly divorced, especially in the MMO market.

You seem slightly naive when it comes to suits and how they invest

If something performs significantly below expectations - which may or may not be the case with ESO - they're of a very fickle nature. They're in this for the money, and if there's one things that's NOT sexy in the eyes of a suit, it's "keeping afloat". They'd rather just sell it off or discard it and count their blessings. Then they're free to invest in their next profit venture.

It's not exactly pride and creative integrity steering the ship.

DArtagnan said:

You seem slightly naive when it comes to suits and how they invest

If something performs significantly below expectations - which may or may not be the case with ESO - they're of a very fickle nature. They're in this for the money, and if there's one things that's NOT sexy in the eyes of a suit, it's "keeping afloat". They'd rather just sell it off or discard it and count their blessings. Then they're free to invest in their next profit venture.

It's not exactly pride and creative integrity steering the ship.

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Well I just speak from my experience with MMO's they tend to keep runing as long as they are somewhat profitable.

I think the best example is SWTOR since it's from EA.
Of course it went F2P and I frankly expect this to happen to ESO sooner or later.

Thorwyn99 said:

Well I just speak from my experience with MMO's they tend to keep runing as long as they are somewhat profitable.

I think the best example is SWTOR since it's from EA.
Of course it went F2P and I frankly expect this to happen to ESO sooner or later.

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Yeah, and - to me - that's almost worse than discarding it. It means they're no longer going to be bold and ambitious - but do whatever they can to turn it into a profit-machine.

Since I like ESO - that's a pretty big cause for concern to me.

SWtOR is, today, nothing but a hollow profit machine living off decent core content and the Star Wars setting. Sure, they've polished it up a bit and added a few flashpoints, but it's never going to be more than what it is.

DArtagnan said:

Yeah, and - to me - that's almost worse than discarding it. It means they're no longer going to be bold and ambitious - but do whatever they can to turn it into a profit-machine.

Since I like ESO - that's a pretty big cause for concern to me.

SWtOR is, today, nothing but a hollow profit machine living off decent core content and the Star Wars setting. Sure, they've polished it up a bit and added a few flashpoints, but it's never going to be more than what it is.

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Well in that case yeah you might have cause for concern, but frankly none of those 2 games struck me as very bold or ambitious to start with.

For Swtor I can attest it wasn't(The only new thing was the voiced over cut scenes and that got old fast.), for ESO my opinion is only from second hand though.

Thinking about it, hasn't SWTOR brought out some decent things since they went F2P?

DArtagnan said:

While it could be "standard practice" - this kind of news is always a bit unpleasant and a cause for concern. I'm still hoping the game will have a brighter future than many seem to want.

It has a lot of potential, that's for sure.

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That's how I feel about it as well. And it looks like it wasn't just Customer Support that was hit.

My opinion hasn't changed about the game (haven't stopped playing yet) and you know it. I've said it before, here's hoping for the best, because there's true potential in this already great game. If they manage to pull everything they've promised off, then it's going to be amazing and I can even see many people flocking in if they do succeed. Until then, I'm going to not pay that much of a mind to these news.

Also, you mentioned suits. *Shudders*

Thorwyn99 said:

Well in that case yeah you might have cause for concern, but frankly none of those 2 games struck me as very bold or ambitious to start with.

For Swtor I can attest it wasn't(The only new thing was the voiced over cut scenes and that got old fast.), for ESO my opinion is only from second hand though.

Thinking about it, hasn't SWTOR brought out some decent things since they went F2P?

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It depends what you mean by decent things. The game had massive flaws upon release in terms of design - and some pretty hefty broken promises (most blatant and extreme being Ilum - which is arguably half a game that never came), not to mention a complete disregard for "low-hanging fruit" like PvE space exploration.

Nothing about that has changed, and they've done nothing but utterly safe and predictable content upgrades, completely failing to continue the core class stories which were supposed to be the big deal about the game.

So, no, I don't think much of the F2P cash-grabbing infestation with endless costumes and booster packs for sale.

As for ESO, I obviously disagree with a lot of people about it - and I think it's quite bold to make an MMO so focused on serious lore, with much less combat than is the norm.

Also, I don't think a game has to start out being overly ambitious. Just as long as the structure is in place for it - there's potential.

DArtagnan said:

It depends what you mean by decent things. The game had massive flaws upon release in terms of design - and some pretty hefty broken promises (most blatant and extreme being Ilum - which is arguably half a game that never came), not to mention a complete disregard for "low-hanging fruit" like PvE space exploration.

Nothing about that has changed, and they've done nothing but utterly safe and predictable content upgrades, completely failing to continue the core class stories which were supposed to be the big deal about the game.

So, no, I don't think much of the F2P cash-grabbing infestation with endless costumes and booster packs for sale.

As for ESO, I obviously disagree with a lot of people about it - and I think it's quite bold to make an MMO so focused on serious lore, with much less combat than is the norm.

Also, I don't think a game has to start out being overly ambitious. Just as long as the structure is in place for it - there's potential.

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Well I didn't play SWTOR in a long time and I only check sporadically.
But I remember some announcements of space flight at some point and now there's the galactic strongholds which I guess are housing.
Depends on implementation but that sounds decent to me.

And of course there will always be the cash grab right next to it in F2P.

I won't judge ESO as I have no first hand experience with it.
Thought about starting a few times but I hardly have time to play the MMO's i play now and I still somewhat begrudge them for making it online in the first place .

Still it seems to follow the (mostly) single player story —————-> Crafting,Dungeons, PVP, Raid setup. So fairly standard.

Anyways seems last time they announced it the subscriber numbers looked respectable (Something about 700k right ?).

If they can keep that I think they'll be fine at least for some time.

Thorwyn99 said:

Well I didn't play SWTOR in a long time and I only check sporadically.
But I remember some announcements of space flight at some point and now there's the galactic strongholds which I guess are housing.
Depends on implementation but that sounds decent to me.

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Sure, if you like housing in a game with huge, empty planets that seem mostly dead and utterly lacking in ambience. I don't know why anyone would want to live in that world - but I guess people differ.

Simplistic PvP space combat that's more about grinding gear than anything? SWG and its expansion went way beyond that several years ago.

Decent? Not to me it isn't.

Still it seems to follow the (mostly) single player story —————-> Crafting,Dungeons, PVP, Raid setup. So fairly standard.

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Are you saying all MMOs that have these features are the same? Because I don't agree.

It's very much about what the emphasis is, and what the general gameplay is like.

ESO, as I said, is focused on lore and exploration. It's almost completely driven by quests that have meaning and are connected to the world in a way that makes sense. Also, combat is somewhat rare compared to other MMOs - which is probably the biggest departure. You can explore the majority of all the areas and avoid combat easily.

The best gear is crafted, which is EXTREMELY unusual for a themepark MMO.

Also, it's got superb class flexibility which is also EXTREMELY unusual for any MMO.

The first person implementation is the best of any MMO, and makes the whole world much more immersive.

The C&C in quests is the most significant of any MMO I've played - and it's a game that really makes you think about how to respond to what's happening.

It sets itself apart quite nicely.

Before we can speculate on what this is really about we need to find out how many people were let go. Personally, I feel they are holding back the truth a bit. ESO has not been the massive success everyone(them & us) expected.

They are cutting the fat and are trying to find a sweet spot to hold on for as long as possible. If it was doing really well they would have needed these people to produce more content and DLC.

I just hate seeing anyone lose their job and makes me angry to see this happen.

What a crappy industry.