Evil!

It’s not going to surprise anyone with a functioning sense of empathy that Microsoft’s immense cuts to employees across its gaming division have deeply affected the lives of those laid off and those remaining, but we’re getting another peek behind the impact that also points out how those layoffs have impacted studio functions and existing games such as Elder Scrolls Online.

According to current employee Page Branson, some of those who were laid off were “absolutely crucial” to the success of ESO and “integral” to the everyday function of the studio in general. Some of that brain drain can likely be attributed to the dev knowledge lost thanks to the ending of development on MMORPG Project Blackbird as well as the departure of former studio president Matt Firor, but according to QA worker Autumn Mitchell, a third of the studio’s institutional knowledge keeping ZOS’s projects running smoothly has been eliminated.

We still don’t have a clear picture of how many at ZOS were affected by Microsoft’s layoffs, but workers have suggested they number in the hundreds (one called it a “fuck ton” of employees) and believe that cuts would have been deeper if it hadn’t been for the support of the studio’s formed unions.

“A lot of practical knowledge just disappeared overnight,” said Branson. “I feel like they were numbers on a sheet that got cut, but the real application of what they were doing was integral to making everything run correctly.”

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