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[LectureMaster]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/theres-really-no-one-left-former-elder-scrolls-online-dev-says-the-mmo-basically-funded-other-failing-projects-as-microsoft-guts-the-studio/

---

The team behind Elder Scrolls Online is one of many that's been impacted by ruthless cuts being made by Xbox at the moment. Purportedly up to half of the devs behind Bethesda's MMO have lost their jobs, and a former designer on the fantasy sandbox has been quick to point out the game's unsung glories.

In the wake of the redundancies, Andrew Young, a senior content designer on Elder Scrolls Online who worked on the online RPG from 2012 through to 2024, vented his frustrations on Twitter. "I'm just so angry today," he says. "People will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making ESO or how we basically funded other failing projects while never getting enough resources to really keep up with our release cadence."

He adds that fans may never realize just how integral Elder Scrolls Online was to Bethesda. "Talking to people today and realizing there's really no one left and no changing it now makes my heart ache," he says. "For the people, our game, who we were as a team and a studio. This is a serious loss, and I don't think people know how much."



No specifics are given, but my mind immediately jumped to Blades and Legends, two free mobile spin-offs that came out in the 2010s. The former was all about constantly getting into swordfights, while the latter was a digital card game. Both have since been unceremoniously closed, and Young could be talking about other projects within the umbrella of Bathesda's parent company ZeniMax, either.

Elder Scrolls Online has been a reliable money-spinner, bringing in upwards of $2 billion across its lifetime to date. Those are decent earnings, especially when it comes to the currently over-saturated live-service and MMO market. The game adopted a new updated schedule in 2025, moving from yearly changes to a more seasonal approach, with Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk due to finish tomorrow, July 8.

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[calico]

"we basically funded..."

These people are delusional.

 

[RainblowDash]

How big was ESO? It didn't appeal to me

 

[Revolutionary]

FFXIV devs:

 

[PauloRoberto]

"we basically funded..."

These people are delusional.

I will take issue with that if you are talking just about language. If this project was maintaining other projects, his language, per se, was not wrong.

 

[phant0m]

How big was ESO? It didn't appeal to me

Regularly in the Top 5 in terms of population behind WoW and FFXIV. It's got a great world, quests and stories....terrible combat though and the scaling makes you never feel weak or really powerful.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Must be a great experience for a dev working on ESO. Management is gambling away the dollars, as a reward you loose your job

 

[Bonfires Down]

Satya doesn't care if you're profitable or not. He will cut and slash everything to get more money for his AI fetish.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

FFXIV devs:

What the fuck has Bethesda even done in the last 20 years compared to the dozens of games that Square pumped out?

Christ just burn down the entire Western mainstream games industry.

 

[bitbydeath]

No specifics are given, but my mind immediately jumped to Blades and Legends

Probably Fallout 76

 

[SoloCamo]

What the fuck has Bethesda even done in the last 20 years compared to the dozens of games that Square pumped out?

Christ just burn down the entire Western mainstream games industry.

I've played more Bethesda games over those years than Square games... apples and oranges here, they don't offer similar games at all.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

"other failing projects"?
So the MMO was also a failure?

 

[March Climber]

"we basically funded..."

These people are delusional.

How big was ESO? It didn't appeal to me

ESO makes 15 million dollars in monthly revenue and has made 2+ billion lifetime (so far).

In addition to this gut punch, and the gut punch of their now cut staff, they had a third gut punch a few months back when their playable new game they were working on, was cancelled.

I completely understand why a few creative leads said 'screw it' and quit after that game was canned. These guys cannot catch a break yet they earn the company money on a monthly basis.

 

[Big-G]

I will take issue with that if you are talking just about language. If this project was maintaining other projects, his language, per se, was not wrong.

It's been going for a while and is regularly supported. I don't think MS would keep supporting the game if it kept losing them money, so there's probably SOME truth to this, but also a tad overblown.

 

[Revolutionary]

What the fuck has Bethesda even done in the last 20 years compared to the dozens of games that Square pumped out?

Honestly I'm not familiar with Zenimax Online outside of ESO.

I was just responding to the thread title because most FFXIV profits have infamously gone towards experiments and failures like Foamstars, Forspoken, etc, rather than back into XIV itself. They seem to have been given a bigger budget for the next expansion, though.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Satya doesn't care if you're profitable or not. He will cut and slash everything to get more money for his AI fetish.

Exactly

Peoples are overthinking when it comes to « deserves it », financial situation, CCUs, flops etc. AI put MS in a fuck load of pain.

 

[The_Mike]

Regularly in the Top 5 in terms of population behind WoW and FFXIV. It's got a great world, quests and stories....terrible combat though and the scaling makes you never feel weak or really powerful.

Let's be real.

ESO and FFXIV are popular only because consoles doesn't have other mmos.
We're they pc only then they were dead long ago.

Not that the genre is alive on pc nowadays

 

[March Climber]

Let's be real.

ESO and FFXIV are popular only because consoles doesn't have other mmos.

This isn't true and if anything, FFXIV having any semblance of a console playerbase in 2026 should be considered a miracle since both the signup process and the controller feel are ass.

And I like that game.

 

[calico]

I will take issue with that if you are talking just about language. If this project was maintaining other projects, his language, per se, was not wrong.

I'm talking about the language as an insight in to his delusional mindset.

He seems to believe he and his colleagues in some sense owned the game by virtue of being paid to work on it (they didn't), and that the funds it generated were in some sense theirs (they weren't).

They worked and were presumably compensated for their work. They funded nothing.

 

[Ryseer]

This isn't true and if anything, FFXIV having any semblance of a console playerbase in 2026 should be considered a miracle since both the signup process and the controller feel are ass.

And I like that game.

You can still use keyboard and mouse,on PS5... That's how I played.

 

[Panajev2001a]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-elder-scrolls/theres-really-no-one-left-former-elder-scrolls-online-dev-says-the-mmo-basically-funded-other-failing-projects-as-microsoft-guts-the-studio/

---

The team behind Elder Scrolls Online is one of many that's been impacted by ruthless cuts being made by Xbox at the moment. Purportedly up to half of the devs behind Bethesda's MMO have lost their jobs, and a former designer on the fantasy sandbox has been quick to point out the game's unsung glories.

In the wake of the redundancies, Andrew Young, a senior content designer on Elder Scrolls Online who worked on the online RPG from 2012 through to 2024, vented his frustrations on Twitter. "I'm just so angry today," he says. "People will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making ESO or how we basically funded other failing projects while never getting enough resources to really keep up with our release cadence."

He adds that fans may never realize just how integral Elder Scrolls Online was to Bethesda. "Talking to people today and realizing there's really no one left and no changing it now makes my heart ache," he says. "For the people, our game, who we were as a team and a studio. This is a serious loss, and I don't think people know how much."



No specifics are given, but my mind immediately jumped to Blades and Legends, two free mobile spin-offs that came out in the 2010s. The former was all about constantly getting into swordfights, while the latter was a digital card game. Both have since been unceremoniously closed, and Young could be talking about other projects within the umbrella of Bathesda's parent company ZeniMax, either.

Elder Scrolls Online has been a reliable money-spinner, bringing in upwards of $2 billion across its lifetime to date. Those are decent earnings, especially when it comes to the currently over-saturated live-service and MMO market. The game adopted a new updated schedule in 2025, moving from yearly changes to a more seasonal approach, with Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk due to finish tomorrow, July 8.

Meanwhile in Astroturfers' land…

Asha hear them

Asha went just for DEI

Asha went after useless management

Asha is gamers' friends

 

[Bkdk]

Many other failing project's devs are being laid off, so the funding failed projects part is no longer relevant. ESO concurrent players on steam is on a slow decline for the past few years. Not surprised there are layoffs. Skyrim special edition literally saw steady increase in concurrent players in steam and MS reckon they could just make more money with creation club paid mods. ESO is slowly losing its purpose to milk die hard fans money long term.

 

[PauloRoberto]

I'm talking about the language as an insight in to his delusional mindset.

He seems to believe he and his colleagues in some sense owned the game by virtue of being paid to work on it (they didn't), and that the funds it generated were in some sense theirs (they weren't).

They worked and were presumably compensated for their work. They funded nothing.

I continue to take issue with that, you are taking his work too literally.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Many other failing project's devs are being laid off, so the funding failed projects part is no longer relevant.

What? $15 Million a month…

ESO concurrent players on steam is on a slow decline for the past few years. Not surprised there are layoffs.

What?

Skyrim special edition literally saw steady increase in concurrent players in steam and MS reckon they could just make more money with creation club paid mods. ESO is slowly losing its purpose to milk die hard fans money long term.

 

[BennyBlanco]

ESO is one of the blandest games I've ever played. I guess it has it's fans.

 

[Arsic]

It's clearly why ffxi and ffxiv exist for square so they can fund shitty ass octocrap traveller and bravely retarded, instead of making true turn based mainline FF games.

 

[Puscifer]

"we basically funded..."

These people are delusional.

F2P MMOs milk people dry lol you know that games milking people for 200 million a month a had a year where it brought in 2 billion? They aren't delusional, it's reality.

 

[Hero Of Hyrule]

Tunnel vision

 

[Puscifer]

It's clearly why ffxi and ffxiv exist for square so they can fund shitty ass octocrap traveller and bravely retarded, instead of making true turn based mainline FF games.

Successful MMO is the infinite money glitch. I know mfers who were 400 pounds after they touched WoW. There's no way you can tell me Blizzard doesn't still have classic WoW money that shit was HUGE

 

[Arsic]

Successful MMO is the infinite money glitch. I know mfers who were 400 pounds after they touched WoW. There's no way you can tell me Blizzard doesn't still class WoW money that shit was HUGE

Wow is still massive. Still the biggest mmo if you combine retail and classic.

And this year the rumor is classic plus. Classic WoW with cut zones, new raids, some rebalancing of classes with some new abilities.

If that's what it ends up being? Fucking even more money and player numbers will spike for months.

I'll be there day one if that's what they're cooking up.

 

[mckmas8808]

"we basically funded..."

These people are delusional.

Are they? What if he's right and they did fund those other games?

 

[Here]

We'll get over it.

Spoiler

 

[March Climber]

You can still use keyboard and mouse,on PS5... That's how I played.

I like FF14 as much as the next person but I consider this a failure for a console game.

There are other MMOs on console that have worked better on controller with just as many mechanics.

Even Guild Wars 1: Reforged ended up doing a better job with controller support and those guys were notoriously anti-controller for years before then.

 

[simpatico]

So it's like the Microsoft version of PSN+?

 

[Bkdk]

What? $15 Million a month…



What?

What? $15 Million a month…



What?

All you have to do is check the steam charts for your question 2 and 3, go check and see for yourself how ESO players on steam on steady decline while skyrim special edition concurrent on steady uptrend, MS could make way more money from creation club mods because profit margin is far higher by just taking commisions, and yes, as studios that made those failed projects are seeing layoffs and cancellations, the part that ESO needed to fund continuous failed projects is not needed anymore. ESO is slowly losing its purpose.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Let's be real.

ESO and FFXIV are popular only because consoles doesn't have other mmos.
We're they pc only then they were dead long ago.

Not that the genre is alive on pc nowadays

What other PC exclusive MMO you're thinking that are popular nowadays?

 

[calico]

I continue to take issue with that

Sorry to hear it.

Are they? What if he's right and they did fund those other games?

Now he and his colleagues can get together and fund their own game instead of funding these failed projects like they were before I guess?

it brought in 2 billion

Good word choice imo.

 

[Ashamam]

Now he and his colleagues can get together and fund their own game instead of funding these failed projects like they were before I guess?

Ok, because you seem to have never had an emotional attachment to a project you have worked on let me explain.

When you work for an extended period of time on a project and then the accountants use the significant revenue you helped generate on other projects whilst starving your own.... its demoralising. Made worse if those other projects fail. Perfectly normal human reaction.

 

[FauxXeno]

Let's be real.

ESO and FFXIV are popular only because consoles doesn't have other mmos.
We're they pc only then they were dead long ago.

Not that the genre is alive on pc nowadays

That's not true , most major mmos are on console already except like WoW and GW . FF11 went pc only ages ago but is still has an active playerbase and it's still a sub only game ( not sure it it has any form of free trial ) . FFxiv is still alive and kicking and is one of those games people who started it on console would get a pc to play a better version of it . FFxiv is popular regardless of platform and the hype train is about to start again with the upcoming Fanfests leading into the next expansion and reworked combat system , it's popular for it's own merit with them always updating it with consistant content patches and QoL updates .

As for ESO I assume it's active because they seem to give it away alot with PS+

 

[phant0m]

Let's be real.

ESO and FFXIV are popular only because consoles doesn't have other mmos.
We're they pc only then they were dead long ago.

Not that the genre is alive on pc nowadays

This is an embarrassingly bad take, you should probably stop pulling bullshit out of your ass. It's a near 50/50 split between PC and Console, and console is split between PS/Xbox as different platforms. PC has a lot of longer term players because of mods

It is ok to just not post

 

[PauloRoberto]

Sorry to hear it.

Do not be sorry. be better! :-D

 

[calico]

Ok, because you seem to have never had an emotional attachment to a project you have worked on let me explain.

When you work for an extended period of time on a project and then the accountants use the significant revenue you helped generate on other projects whilst starving your own.... its demoralising. Made worse if those other projects fail. Perfectly normal human reaction.

I'm sure you're right that a lot of employees delude themselves into believing they own something they do not own. That is something to guard against imo.

 

[Hero Of Hyrule]

Elder Scrolls Online isn't Fortnite or Minecraft, though I do wish it was

 

[Jigsaah]

I'm not so sure ESO funded failing projects. They were, however one live service game that simply made sense to subscribe to if you love Elder Scrolls. Beyond just the crown shop, the monthly sub would also give you practically a hefy storage space for your crafting items. Which, for me at least, was worth the sub by itself. I wasn't even hardcore into ESO but I did sub to that when I did play. That's residual income, something that even COD doesn't have. Now that I think about it, not sure any other Xbox IP had residual income baked in like that. So maybe he has a point.

Still, redundancies are redundant and if you can get the same job done with less people, then it should be done.

Asha's description of the literal financial abuse Xbox was putting itself through basically justifies these layoffs IMO. It sucks for those affected and I feel for them. The blame goes to the leadership though. Satya, Phil, Booty, Sarah.

 

[FauxXeno]

I like FF14 as much as the next person but I consider this a failure for a console game.

There are other MMOs on console that have worked better on controller with just as many mechanics.

Even Guild Wars 1: Reforged ended up doing a better job with controller support and those guys were notoriously anti-controller for years before then.

FFxiv's default settings suck but it's very customizable , it might take you over the coarse of a thousand hours to fine tune your experience with UI setting and controller layouts but once you do it feels amazing .

 

[P:axMagellanic]

The ESO DLC/expansion release cadence was very impressive. Tes6 is atleast another 4 years away so fuck knows what they're going to release in the interim.

They deserved resources being put into it to update the server tech and engine, but it's too late now with last year's layoffs and game cancellation.

 

[Ashamam]

I'm sure you're right that a lot of employees delude themselves into believing they own something they do not own. That is something to guard against imo.

Having a sense of ownership of your work is exactly what you want to encourage actually. It makes for better quality output and increased effort.

 

[Meicyn]

I'm sure you're right that a lot of employees delude themselves into believing they own something they do not own. That is something to guard against imo.

The delusion is yours actually. You're too busy trying to carve out a distinction without a meaningful difference to recognize that these employees don't literally think they own ESO. They just got fired, pretty sure they're aware of the situation. Taking ownership and pride in your work is not the same as "I own this IP".

 

[balls of snow]

Satya doesn't care if you're profitable or not. He will cut and slash everything to get more money for his AI fetish.

Aint that the truth. He was probably salivating when Phil performance review was dire laat quarter. First domino to fall.