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Xbox may have avoided the PR disaster of studio closures this week, but by extending its layoffs over the course of the coming fiscal year, it’s leaving any remaining staff to work under a cloud.
The company cut 1,600 jobs across its division on Monday, with a further four first-party studios being spun-off or sold.
Arkane Studios, the maker of Marvel’s Blade, is also in the process of being divested, although its outcome is currently hanging due to French labour laws.
And a new article from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier delves a little deeper into the uncertainty across the entire business, as the remaining staff are “being asked to do more with less” – or face the consequences when the next round of redundancies hit.
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He writes (paywalled):
“Parts of the organisation will have to spend the next 12 months trying to keep up morale in the often grueling circumstances of making video games – a difficult endeavor even during the best of times – while wondering if they will be next.”
Schreier’s article corroborates that both Zenimax Online Studios and id Software have been “gutted”, with the latter reportedly relegated to “support studio” size. (Although it claims to still have a big enough crew to build new games.)
No one has been safe, though, with even crown jewel Bethesda Game Studios – the studio behind The Elder Scrolls 6 – suffering cuts.
And as mentioned above, this is just the first phase of the job losses, with a further 1,600 cuts to come over the course of the coming fiscal year.
As Schreier reports, the remaining staff will be forced to try and deliver their best work, wondering whether they will be let go next.