After the layoffs at Microsoft, employees have called for a protest. Among them are also veterans who have worked for decades on well-known games such as Skyrim, Fallout, and Doom.
The title image is a symbolic image.
Why is there a protest? On July 6, Microsoft announced it would cut a total of 3,200 jobs in its gaming division. 1,600 employees immediately lost their jobs, while another 1,600 are expected to follow at an unknown later date. The ZeniMax studios, which include Bethesda and ID Software, were hit particularly hard.
According to the union CWA, at least 440 jobs were lost there. On Wednesday, the CWA organized the Save Our Devs March
(roughly translated as Save Our Developers
march) in front of several ZeniMax offices in the USA and Canada. The magazine Aftermath was present at the rally in Rockville and spoke with current and former employees.
Employees stand up for their rights
What are the employees demanding? The employees want to bring Microsoft to the negotiating table with the protest. Their main goal is to reverse the layoffs.
However, if that does not succeed, the employees are demanding better severance pays, longer health insurance coverage, and a right to priority consideration for future job postings. The union also announced that it would exhaust all legal means.
For many, it is about more than just their own jobs. “Corporate greed is destroying our games and our livelihoods,” said former quest designer Stephanie Zachariadis at the rally.
The protest is also a fight for the spirit of the studio. It has also affected long-time figures from games like Skyrim, Doom, or Fallout, such as the designer who created the Khajiit and Argonians from The Elder Scrolls or a developer who helped build the AI system of Skyrim during his 19 years at the company.
What does this mean for upcoming games? Xbox head Asha Sharma explained the cuts partly by stating that work is sometimes managed through up to 14 management levels. On-site, this representation was met with skepticism, as, according to employee descriptions, mostly experienced developers and not managers were laid off.
How much the layoffs affect the work is described by Nathan Hahn, technical producer at Bethesda, who called the layoffs a significant disruption
. His job is to create roadmaps for the completion of the games. These plans are now void because the people who should have been doing the work are missing.
The knowledge of the in-house engine is also affected. It is based on the experience of developers who have worked on it for decades and have now been laid off.
In the studio, employees are therefore left at a loss because the very colleagues they would normally consult are missing. Additionally, this is already the second wave of layoffs at ZeniMax within two years, and half of the announced 3,200 cuts are still pending.
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