Bethesda’s ZeniMax Online Studios launched The Elder Scrolls Online earlier this year. Now, with the game established and much of the production and support work done, the company is cutting jobs.
Publisher Bethesda Softworks confirmed to GamesBeat that it is laying off portions of the ZeniMax Online team. The company pointed out that it no longer needs the huge number of employees it brought on to create the title now that it is out and operating without any major issues.
“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,” Bethesda vice president of public relations Pete Hines said in a statement provided to GamesBeat. “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.”
The Elder Scrolls Online is a role-playing game set in a massively online world. Players can take on different roles and go on quests with friends and strangers. It is the latest entry in the long-running Elder Scrolls series, which includes megahits like Skyrim and Oblivion.
ZeniMax Online’s MMO debuted on PC April 4. The company intends to release the game on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 some time this year or in early 2015. It was originally supposed to debut on those consoles in June, but Bethesda delayed it without providing a new firm release date.
Despite the extensive delay and today’s layoffs, Bethesda says the Xbox One and PS4 versions are still on the way.
“We remain strongly committed to The Elder Scrolls Online and continue to invest heavily to develop new content for PC and Mac players,” said Hines. “[We are also preparing] the game for its console launch, and [we are handling the] planned expansion into important international territories. As for customer service, we continue to operate large support centers in Hunt Valley, Maryland and Galway, Ireland.”
