Do we know Zos/ESO is safe from "XBOX reset"? Are we worry-free?

SkaiFaith · June 14

NO CONSPIRACIES PLEASE.

Just want to know if there is any valid insight about Zos/ESO being safe with all that's going on in the gaming industry right now: Stop Killing Games campaign proceeding in EU and XBOX's new CEO saying starting in July there will be a reset for the brand, implying the likely possibility of additional layoffs. Also, what appears to be kinda of a shift away from the focus on live service games.

No "ESO is dead" comments, please, since they are documented on the forum since 2014 and they don't add anything to the conversation.

Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.

And to ESO Devs: hope y'all will continue your adventure in developing Tamriel in an environment safer than Tamriel - those Daedric Princes... Darien had warned us!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VKqIB2J3hvE

LadyGP · June 14

The devs won't come out and talk about any internal conversations they have with Xbox leadership.

However, Asha has openly said that they need to speed up devlopment and iterate quicker on their top games - and included ESO in that. Yes, she was more than likely talking about ES6 but none the less ESO is clearly a big part of Xbox and I don't see any sign that ESO is going anywhere anytime soon.

Rest easy my friend.

SkaiFaith · June 14

LadyGP wrote: »

The devs won't come out and talk about any internal conversations they have with Xbox leadership.

However, Asha has openly said that they need to speed up devlopment and iterate quicker on their top games - and included ESO in that. Yes, she was more than likely talking about ES6 but none the less ESO is clearly a big part of Xbox and I don't see any sign that ESO is going anywhere anytime soon.

Rest easy my friend.

Oooh! Read like this, it sounds like ESO could even be on the receiving end, going to improve instead of losing. That would be really nice!

AzuraFan · June 14

LadyGP wrote: »

However, Asha has openly said that they need to speed up devlopment and iterate quicker on their top games - and included ESO in that. Yes, she was more than likely talking about ES6 but none the less ESO is clearly a big part of Xbox and I don't see any sign that ESO is going anywhere anytime soon.

Yeah, apparently the Xbox leadership wants to focus on Elder Scrolls and Fallout and get games out faster. But it sounded like they were referring to the single-player games. I don't think they want 15 years between titles again (or however long it will eventually be for ES6). If it also applies to ESO, that would be great.

Trapgat · June 14

As long as the live service games has plenty of subscribers, it's good for $$$.

SkaiFaith · July 13

June 14th... On June 14th I created this thread.
I had forgotten about it.
Am I... The Prophet?

Einar_Hrafnarsson · July 14

ESOs Dev Team was basically cut in half. 200+ Layoffs. I don't know how that is good. Good Art Directors and such are not easy to come by.

DoofusMax · July 14

LadyGP wrote: »

The devs won't come out and talk about any internal conversations they have with Xbox leadership.

However, Asha has openly said that they need to speed up devlopment and iterate quicker on their top games - and included ESO in that. Yes, she was more than likely talking about ES6 but none the less ESO is clearly a big part of Xbox and I don't see any sign that ESO is going anywhere anytime soon.

Rest easy my friend.

I'm in agreement on the "rest easy" part, but am going to quibble a bit about Sharma's comment. She did not include ESO in the statement about speeding up development and iterating quicker. She specifically talked about popular franchises like Elder Scrolls and Fallout but without talking about specific games within those franchises. Considering differences in how Bethesda and Zenimax were hit by personnel layoffs, I'm of the opinion that ESO was not viewed as being part of the franchise in spite of having "Elder Scrolls" built into the title.

Pixiepumpkin · July 14

Einar_Hrafnarsson wrote: »

ESOs Dev Team was basically cut in half. 200+ Layoffs. I don't know how that is good. Good Art Directors and such are not easy to come by.

Exactly. Few understand the importance of a good art director and lead artists. They help set the tone and feel of the game. When they move on or are let go the feel of the game can change and generally never for the better because what people come to know and love came from that art direciton/artist.

For example Samwise Didier did the original stuff for Warcraft, in fact he coined the name "Warcraft". His art style set the stage for Orcs and Humans and eventually WOW.

Since he left WOW, the art direction has shifted, and is more disney like. Its a massive turn off for veteran players.

If ESO lost their art director and lead artists, well their is absolutely nothing positive about that, because any art director or artist worth their salt will be able to negotiate the same kind of pay, so it makes no sense to let go of the more stable artists or art director.

The same can be said for writing, but ESO already left the best writer they ever had...so imo that has a chance to get better, but even then a good writer will be able to negotiate that high dollar salary. Especially if they live in Maryland. The average home around Zenimax Online Media is about 700k.

Haenk · July 15

On a sidenote: Speeding up development *never* works. Cutting a team in half *never* has a positive side (unless they were really blocking each other, can't imagine this happened...)