ZeniMax Online Studios Loses Over 200 Staff in Microsoft Layoffs
SOURCENews reportView the filing ↗
What we know
Location: Maryland, USA.
Department affected: ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online leadership and broader ZeniMax Media staff).
Based on news reporting.
Summary
An internal purge tied to Microsoft's recent round of mass layoffs resulted in significant cuts across ZeniMax entities. PC Gamer reports that 379 employees in total were affected across ZeniMax operations in Maryland: 213 from ZeniMax Online Studios (including key Elder Scrolls Online leaders such as studio head Joseph Burba, executive producer Susan Kath, game director Rich Lambert, and production director Ala Diaz) and 166 from ZeniMax Media (including Bethesda Game Studios and publishing). The departing ESO leaders will remain for a transition period of several months while a new leadership team takes over. The article notes ZeniMax Online's headcount had already shrunk considerably since late 2024 (roughly 461) and that the studio has lost at least 40% of its workforce after rounds of layoffs in 2025 and 2026, raising concerns about institutional knowledge loss and the future of ESO.
ZeniMax MEDIA INC. cut 379 jobs in MD affecting its ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online leadership and broader ZeniMax Media staff) team as of July 16, 2026.
That is roughly 15.2% of the 2,500 people ZeniMax MEDIA INC. employs.
LayoffTalk has tracked 9 layoff events at ZeniMax MEDIA INC. since April 2024, including 136 jobs documented in official WARN filings, with 8 additional events known from news reporting.
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