In January, Microsoft announced it would be slashing 1,900 jobs, with the redundancies hitting the likes of Activision Blizzard and Xbox. It seems that the fallout of that announcement is still being felt, as recent reports have suggested that Bethesda France is being shut down entirely. Back by claims from Bethesda-affiliated content creators and confirmation that at least some layoffs are being made at Bethesda France, it spells bad news for the firm.
This news comes as Bethesda Game Studios celebrates rampant success with its Fallout brand. On April 10, the Amazon-backed Fallout TV show was released on Prime Video to an overwhelmingly positive reception. It has since gone on to drive a resurgence in popularity of the game series, with some titles breaking player count records in the last few days.
Lingering Fallout
In some claims, it has been suggested that only certain teams have been impacted by this move and that Bethesda-owned studios based in France, like Arkane Lyon, are unaffected. That’s a positive point, as Arkane Lyon is currently neck-deep in the development of the Blade game that was recently revealed. Many fans have taken to social media platforms to stress that Bethesda France ‘didn’t really do anything’ and was just the publishing arm of the company in the country, but it’s still a big loss.
In the last year and a half, some 20,000 industry workers have lost their jobs worldwide.
There have been claims that Bethesda Germany will be the next localised team to be hit. This could also extend to ZeniMax, but that’s just conjecture at this point.
Since 2012, Bethesda France has been working mostly on the marketing front for the company and has been involved in community engagement. It has been said by some former employees that the office ‘only’ employs around fifteen workers. Regardless of the size of the team, any news regarding layoffs always leaves a sour taste in our mouths.
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