On Wednesday July 2, 2025, Xbox laid off over 9,000 employees across its studios. This included the likes of Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and, of course, Zenimax Online Studios, creator of The Elder Scrolls Online. Later that evening, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier received confirmation that the studio’s upcoming MMO, codenamed Project Blackbird, had also been canceled, with leaks later claiming that it was primed to be a sci-fi shooter with a Blade Runner-inspired aesthetic. While the ESO team has continued to push forward with lots of new additions, including everything from swimming mounts to scribing, I ask Zenimax’s studio game director Rich Lambert, who only moved into the role in mid-August, about the ripple effects of those layoffs.
Xbox’s July layoffs were among the most severe we’ve seen to date in game development. Project Blackbird’s game director, Ben Jones, confirmed that the studio’s new project had been shuttered, with Everwild, an action-adventure game from Sea of Thieves studio Rare, biting the dust at the same time. While layoffs anywhere are never welcome, it certainly felt like the Elder Scrolls Online team – and Zenimax as a whole – took a particularly nasty hit.
“It was a super emotional time,” he recalls. “There were friends and colleagues [involved] that I had personally worked with for ten to 15 years, and we lost them. You go through a sort of mourning process.
“But, at the end of the day, we still have our commitment to our community, to the game, and everyone that’s still here, and we have to move forward, as hard as that is. That’s what the studio is focused on: we want ESO to be the 30-year MMO.”
Lambert, however, no longer heads up the Tamriel ship, having transferred to a more directorial role within the company. Instead, longtime director of product management Nick Giacomini is taking the reins as game director, which Lambert describes as “bittersweet” to me.
“Nick is here to do the day-to-day, but I’m still involved in it – it’s kind of my baby,” he says. “But, I get to look at the studio level things and the future level things, and that’s all new to me. It’s a new challenge and it’s really, really exciting. Stepping away’s been way harder than I thought it was going to be, but I’m excited to see how Nick makes his mark and how the team moves forward.”
Despite a pretty heavy knock, ESO has continued to evolve, getting a tailwind from the success of the Oblivion remaster, and also changing up its seasonal model. While Lambert tells me that some people still don’t know that the game is out, the aim is to bring ESO in line with its biggest competitors. The potential could be there, given the IP, but we’ll have to see what the future holds – hopefully the Elder Scrolls 6 release date.
In the meantime, check out our list of the best Skyrim mods if you feel like revisiting an old classic. If you’re still on the remaster, though, we’ve got you covered with a rundown of all the best Oblivion Remastered mods. Don’t say we’re not good to you.
Are you an ESO player? Let us know on Discord, and tell us which class you play (Nightblade all the way).
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