ESO Devs Open Up: Layoffs, Delays, and Why They Won't Rush

Ever wonder what happens to your favorite MMO when the studio behind it gets hit by wave after wave of layoffs? The Elder Scrolls Online team knows that reality all too well.

Zenimax Online has had a brutal couple of years. Back in July 2025, Project Blackbird was scrapped, and 62 people lost their jobs. Then, in July of this year, Xbox's reset gutted the studio again—213 employees laid off. All told, the dev team shrank by roughly 60% in a single year. That's not a small trim; that's a massive blow to a game that, by all accounts, was actually on the upswing. Refreshed animations, a new seasonal structure, experimental gameplay—things were looking good. Which made the 2026 bloodbath feel even more confusing and heartbreaking.

Game director Nick Giacomini doesn't sugarcoat it. "It is challenging," he says. "Something like this, it affects us. It affects all of us and the developers at a personal level. So we can't just pretend like it didn't happen... We're human." But he's also quick to add that the love for the game hasn't gone anywhere. "We still love this game. We love our players, and we love contributing to this and continuing to make it exciting."

That love comes with hard choices. Giacomini posted a letter to the community in July, and it included the tough news that many updates are being pushed to 2027. Why? Because rushing to hit a date would hurt the player experience. "We didn't want to rush to just hit a date," he explains. "We want the player experience to be as rewarding as possible... Had we rushed it, would have put that at risk." So the team is taking the space to do it right—even if that means waiting.

And they're not just in damage control mode. Giacomini was in a meeting about plans for late 2027 and early 2028 when he spoke. Loremaster Michael Zenke sees the work as honoring the colleagues who already poured so much into ESO. "Because ESO is here to stay, because it's not going anywhere, I personally feel indebted to the people that we worked with," he says. "I want to make sure that the vision that they had goes out in the world and lands really successfully."

The community has been a lifeline. Giacomini says players have reached out and posted messages of support. One fan-made book now sits open in the office for everyone to see, filled with stories about what makes ESO special. "It is extraordinarily heartwarming," he says. "It's been really incredible how they've supported us through this."

And there's still stuff to look forward to before the big delays kick in. On September 28, ESO gets three new pieces of content: The Nowhere Vault (randomized puzzles, mazes, and jumping challenges), The High Seas of Tamriel (ship and underwater battles), and rumours—a new type of quest that's basically a scavenger hunt with no quest markers, just hints. Associate game director Jason Barnes says rumours are meant to bring back that old-school sense of discovery. "You're not playing the UI; you're playing the actual game itself," he says. Early feedback? Players want them harder and more obscure. "Acknowledged," Barnes laughs.

A lot of this was already in the works before the layoffs, but it's still a sign that ESO is trying to experiment. Giacomini points to the Night Market as proof that experiments can pay off—players initially struggled, then grouped up and grew to love it. So, will you be checking out the new content on September 28? And are you willing to wait until 2027 for the bigger updates? Let us know in the comments.