Xbox laid off around 1600 people yesterday, July 6th, as mass cuts accompanied by the decision to part ways with five studios were set in stone. This substantial upheaval’s also had plenty of consequences for the studios staying under the Microsoft banner, including a more concerted push to get remaining staff working on Xbox’s most lucrative series. Fallout, for example. That hasn’t stopped the reportedly cuts including around a quarter of the staff at noted Fallout spin-off developers Obsidian.
According to Kotaku, around 60-70 people at Obsidian have been let go so far as part of the cuts, with “a few” more reportedly being told they’ll be ushered out of the door as part of a second round of layoffs later this year, as Xbox look to ditch a total of 3200 staff over their next financial year.
Cuts of that scale have understandably left remaining devs unsure of how exactly work on the “huge list of projects” currently in the works at Obsidian will go ahead. Kotaku report that work on Grounded 2 and The Outer Worlds 2’s DLC’s expected to keep chugging along, with a studio-wide meeting reportedly scheduled for today, July 7th, seeming likely to fill them in on the rest.
The Obsidian staff unceremoniously dumped by Microsoft yesterday include art director Daniel Alpert, a 21 year veteran at the studio. “We are clearly at a turning point in the games industry,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “These past months have been difficult for so many talented people, and unfortunately, it seems the challenges aren’t over yet.”
Also among those let go were another 21 year veteran in animation lead Shon Stewart, senior narrative designer Jay Turner, senior producer Olivia Burkhart, systems designer Dennis Huynh, narrative designer A.K. Fedeau, area designer Tyler McCombs, associate II narrative designer Katie Tenney, 3D artist Jack Krawczyk, and senior recruiter Josh Huang.
As much as it’s incredibly reductive to see the studio behind the likes of Avowed, The Outer Worlds, and Pentiment as simply ‘the New Vegas folks’ a vast number of years on, as conflicting reports about whether and how much Obsidian would be affected by the looming cuts circulated last week, I found it was that situation that really made it hit home to me just how ludicrous a state Xbox are in. Even if you’re looking at things from a completely cynical perpective, a studio who put out two beefy RPGs last year – and would almost certainly have the institutional knowledge required to start nailing Fallout and Elder Scrolls spin-offs if you were to decide that was their best use – not escaping these layoffs without losing a quarter of their workers is among the most glaring evidence yet that no one is safe in these mass bloodlettings. That’s something that’s been evident for a while, but cases like this thouroghly rubbish any asinine ‘the devs brought this on themselves’ arguments that cranks and trolls on the socials might still be spewing out.
Solidarity and best of luck to all of the affected Obsidian workers and those who remain to pick up the pieces at the studio.
