Yesterday’s layoffs at Bethesda Games Studios were not a cut of “14 layers of management”. We lost dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers. Many of whom worked at BGS for decades.
If Bethesda fans are worried this will harm the quality of our future games, like TES VI, let Microsoft know! One way you can do it is here through the XBOX Player Voice feedback platform:
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/69b8ec0b-7479-f111-9b47-6045bdbd0989
7 Jul 2026 23:40
quick note, this is i believe only the second time BGS has ever had layoffs
7 Jul 2026 23:45
All of those people are replaceable in the eyes of Microsoft. They do not understand creative talent, they only see cogs in the machine. Bethesda knee this going in.
7 Jul 2026 23:48
I was worried about the future of Bethesda games long before they were acquired by Microsoft. Xbox is just an easy scapegoat here.
7 Jul 2026 23:49
i think the problem is they dont know how to manage big teams and todd howard is bouncing around way too much. still got hope for es6 but that has impossible hype/hate to get past
7 Jul 2026 23:54
I don't give a shit about Elder Scrolls anymore. I do give a shit about workers however
8 Jul 2026 06:11
"Let Microsoft know"? Like that'll change their trajectory. 🤣 Nothing short of their company collapsing will shake them up.
8 Jul 2026 06:34
Honestly I think Bethesda has always had the same problem. They have an unhealthy relationship with feature creep.
Sometimes if you love an idea, you have to let it go...
8 Jul 2026 06:59
See, when the next game released by these studios laying off employees left and right flop big time, they'll put a surprised Pikachu face and blame gamers for it.
8 Jul 2026 08:23
I'll be honest, I think Bethesda is too big. They hired too many employees for the studio to handle.
Most AAA studios have too many people. It gets to a point where these huge teams take too long to make something because they cannot be as flexible as game development requires with so many people.
That they held onto so many people for this long is pretty impressive, actually. I thought certainly it would have happened sooner.
Morrowind was made by less than 75 people (including the voice actors) and was an absolute banger. Starfield came out and, while I like parts of it, it is nowhere near Morrowind and how many people worked on Starfield? Way more than the <75 of the Morrowind team, that's for sure.
8 Jul 2026 08:38
Lemmy
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