Elder Scrolls Online Isn't Dead, But Devs Are Preparing A "Revised Roadmap"
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Xbox's layoffs were rolled out last week, and it quickly became clear that ZeniMax was hit particularly badly. It was reported that as much as half of the ESO team had lost their jobs, which immediately raised concerns about its future. Would there still be updates? What did this mean for the newly announced seasonal content?
Now, the ESO team is addressing the community, trying to ease fears about the MMO going forward. Speaking on the ESO forum, community manager ZOS_Kevin says that the team is continuing with ESO's development, but admits that there will be a "revised roadmap" going forward.
The Elder Scrolls Online Team Is Getting Back To Work After Devastating Layoffs
As reported by Eurogamer, there have been several encouraging comments coming from the ESO team over the weekend. One of them comes from ZOS_Kevin, who responded to fans on the official forum. He gives us some insight into how game director Nick Giacomini and executive producer Susan Kath are handling the situation.
"We are planning a revised roadmap, however as noted above, Nick and Susan are working on timing and taking care of our team, in what has been understandably a difficult week," ZOS_Kevin says. "The plan is still to deliver great content, and we will hopefully have an update soon.
"Just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words and concern for everyone at the studio and everyone impacted by layoffs. We know that everyone appreciates it."
As noted by Massively Overpowered, the admin of the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages Discord has also shed some light on what is happening behind the scenes.
"ZeniMax Online Studios is now at the same size as it was when they made both Wrothgar and Summerset," says admin Baratron. "Which, as we know, are both highly acclaimed DLCs. So while the layoffs are extremely upsetting for everyone involved (of course including players), this is not necessarily the end of new content or the game going into maintenance mode."
While this would suggest that Xbox still intends to keep ESO going, it's undoubtedly a huge blow to the team. And with more layoffs looming this year, it's hard to imagine how the team is keeping morale up and continuing to develop the game.
The same can be said for Fallout 76. Last week, many over on that team also shared that they were affected by the layoffs. Players worry for Fallout 76's future, and it remains to be seen if Xbox still has a place for this MMO as well.
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OpenCritic Reviews - Top Critic Avg: 71/100 Critics Rec: 39%
- Released
- April 4, 2014
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- ZeniMax Online Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
- Genre(s)
- MMORPG
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