Microsoft continues laying waste to the gaming industry today with the closure of four Bethesda studios.
We can reassure MMO players right away that Elder Scrolls Online’s ZeniMax Online Studios remains safe, and in fact it will apparently be absorbing Roundhouse Games. But other teams were not so lucky. According to a staff email published by IGN, Microsoft is shutting down Arkane Austin (Redfall), Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within), and Alpha Dog Studios (Mighty Doom). Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout 76, etc.) itself was not targeted.
The merge of Roundhouse into ZOS seems like a net positive for Elder Scrolls Online, at least; the memo says that “Roundhouse has played a key role in many of [Microsoft’s] recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean [ZOS] can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.”
Anybody hoping for a comeback for Redfall is screwed, however, as it has effectively been maintenance moded and will not be updated further, contrary to Microsoft’s past assurances: “Redfall’s previous update will be its last as [Microsoft] end[s] all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and [Microsoft] will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.”
We don’t know exactly how many staffers are affected right now, but we do know that layoffs are happening, thanks to Xbox’s Matt Booty’s letter, which calls the move a “reprioritization of titles and resources” that “means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of [the staffers’] colleagues will be leaving [them].” Apparently, “a small number of roles across select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated.”
This isn’t even Microsoft’s first layoff of the year; as readers will recall, Microsoft booted 1900 workers earlier in 2024, nearly half of them from Activision-Blizzard – to say nothing of the 10,000 jobs slashed across Microsoft’s broader corporate holdings back in 2023.
