The list of employees affected by layoffs at ZeniMax is getting longer and longer. Xbox is basically replacing the entire leadership. What MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz concludes from this will probably not please all fans of Elder Scrolls Online.
A few days ago, I reported on an official listing from the state of Maryland, according to which 213 employees of ZeniMax are said to be affected by the current layoffs at Xbox. However, it was still unclear at that time whether all affected individuals had already reported to the authorities and who was affected in detail.
An unofficial list of fans from the official ESO forum had already indicated that many veterans are also affected, who had significantly shaped the development of the MMORPG over the past 12 years.
Now we have more clarity.
Xbox is replacing almost the entire leadership of Elder Scrolls Online
The entire list of jobs affected by the layoffs can be found, for example, on scribd.com. Among the total of 379 laid-off employees, there are also 166 from ZeniMax Media. They had nothing to do with the development of Elder Scrolls Online.
What stands out: The Xbox executives have almost removed the entire leadership of ZeniMax Online Studios. After the departure of former studio head Matt Firor in July 2025, ESO veteran Joe Burba was supposed to lead ZeniMax Online Studios into a successful future – together with Executive Producer Susan Kath and Studio Game Director Rich Lambert. All three are now gone.
When Rich Lambert was still Game Director of Elder Scrolls Online, MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz regularly explored the new dungeons with him and Lead Dungeon Director Mike Finnigan.
However, many other leads are also affected, for example, in the areas of Art, Audio, and Business Development. ESO is also losing many faces that have represented the MMORPG in streams and at events over the past years. Community Manager Gina Bruno, for example, Lead Dungeon Director Mike Finnigan, Senior Writer Designer Jeff Grubb, or Narrative Director Bill Slavicsek.
Also not a good sign: ZeniMax will have to do without more than 60 senior testers from quality assurance (QA) due to the wave of layoffs in the future.
All of this is not something you do when you still see Elder Scrolls Online as a growth project and want to release extensive content updates in the future.
Who will take over the leadership now? Josh Henderson is now said to take over the leadership of ZeniMax Online Studios. As Head of Business Operations, he has mainly focused on finances so far. It is therefore evident that Xbox is now focused on strict budget control at ZeniMax.
Alongside him is Nick Giacomini, who took over the role of Game Director after Rich Lambert’s promotion last year. He will likely take care of everything related to ESO’s content.
Last year, our MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski still spoke with Rich Lambert and Nick Giacomini about the future of ESO.
I see dark times for one of the best MMORPGs on the market
While some of the remaining ZeniMax employees during the ESO Tavern 2026 still drew the hopeful comparison that they are now as large as during the era of Wrothgar and Summerset – and therefore ESO should not be written off. However, I increasingly lack belief.
Having worked with people like Rich Lambert, Matt Firor, and Mike Finnigan over the years, not just in interviews and events, but also having gone through the dungeons of Tamriel together several times, I believe I know how passionate they were for ESO, how great their influence on development was, and that they also played ESO extensively in their private lives.
You cannot replace or lay off such people without negative impacts on the development of a game.
This is compounded by other factors. Laying off about 60 to 71 percent of 300 to 350 employees would be a severe blow for any studio. All the more so when you were supposedly still picking up the pieces from the wave of layoffs last year.
Above all the remaining staff now hangs a sword of Damocles, as another 1,600 positions are to be cut in the coming months… who can deliver creative top performances in such a situation?
A new management focused on budget and finances, along with the drastic reduction of the QA department, all smell like a shift to a maintenance mode, where you want to rotate and milk 08/15 seasons until no more money drips out.
I hope I am wrong. However, we will probably only really notice it next year. By the end of September, the content roadmap is set through the current season. However, the planned Skyrim season for Q4 and early 2027 could already fall through or appear in noticeably reduced form. You can find out more about it here: One of the last major MMO studios from the West is teetering on the brink, and it breaks my heart
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