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.
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