Bethesda has confirmed to Game Informer that there have been layoffs at the company. The job reductions were focused on staff working on The Elder Scrolls Online’s launch in development and customer support.

“As is the norm for games of this type, we had ramped up a large workforce to develop a game of vast scale, and ramped up our customer service to handle the expected questions and community needs of The Elder Scrolls Online at launch,” a company representative told us via email. “Now that we are nearly six months post launch, we have a thriving online community in a game that runs smoothly. We have adjusted staffing to meet the ongoing needs of the studio, which continues to operate with a large work force.”

Bethesda assures that this won’t impact The Elder Scrolls Online and the team continues its work on both the PC and upcoming console versions. “We remain strongly committed to The Elder Scrolls Online, and continue to invest heavily to develop new content for PC players, prepare the game for its console launch, and handle our planned expansion into important international territories,” we were told. “As for customer service, we continue to operate large support centers in Hunt Valley, MD and Galway, Ireland.”

In addition to the upcoming console releases of The Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda and ZeniMax (the parent of developer ZeniMax Online) will release The Evil Within in October. Id Software, also owned by ZeniMax, is currently working on a new Doom title.

Our Take

Our thoughts are with those affected by the layoffs.