The Elder Scrolls Online has lost the core of its leadership team. Studio head Jo Burba is among more than 200 staff cut at ZeniMax Online Studios during Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, according to a Game File report on an internal memo shared with staff on July 15.
Burba isn't leaving alone. ESO executive producer Susan Kath, game director Rich Lambert, and production director Ala Diaz have all lost their roles as well. Per documents seen by Game File and reported by both PC Gamer and Kotaku, the four will stay on for the next few months to hand off to a new leadership team made up of ESO game lead Nick Giacomini and business operations lead Josh Henderson.
Burba had been with the studio for 14 years and worked on ESO since its 2014 launch, only stepping into the top job in July of last year following an earlier round of cuts. In the departing memo, he told staff, "We have tremendous confidence in Josh and Nick, the future of this studio, and the continued growth of ESO." The message pointed to work still ahead, including Update 51 "and beyond."
How deep the cuts go
The damage extends well past ESO. A WARN Act notice filed in Maryland, where both ZeniMax Online and parent ZeniMax Media are based, listed 379 layoffs across Microsoft and ZeniMax offices in the state. Of those, PC Gamer reports 213 came from ZeniMax Online Studios and 166 from ZeniMax Media, the latter figure including Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda's publishing operations. The notice named senior positions like Studio Operations Director, Studio Art Manager, and Vice President and Controller among the eliminated roles.
ZeniMax Online has been shrinking for a while. PC Gamer notes the studio's headcount was roughly 461 in late 2024 (based on union membership), and estimates the team has lost at least 40% of its workforce after layoffs in 2025 and 2026. Cutting executive staff saves money quickly, but it also erases years of institutional knowledge, especially in Burba's case.
Doubts about the road ahead
Studio messaging has tried to reassure fans. Community manager Kevin Gbolie wrote after the layoffs that "the plan is still to deliver great content, and we will hopefully have an update soon," and the studio has claimed its development team is about the same size it was when it shipped the well-liked Wrothgar and Summerset expansions.
Not everyone on staff shares that optimism. Senior encounter designer Morgan Goin told the BBC, "We're not going to be able to put out the amount of content at the speed that we were... or anything approaching that." She said she felt blindsided by the cuts.
This is the second gutting of ZeniMax Online in as many years. The previous round followed Microsoft's cancellation of Project Blackbird, a sci-fi shooter MMO, and pushed out former studio head Matt Firor. Kotaku notes another 1,600 layoffs across Xbox are expected by July 2027.
For players following The Elder Scrolls Online, the near-term picture is Update 51 arriving under a leadership team in transition, with the people who built the game over the last decade on their way out. Promises of "continued growth" sit awkwardly against a studio that has shed a large share of its staff, so temper expectations on how much new content lands, and how fast.