It does seem a bit inhumane that the Redmond tech giant started the new fiscal year—which began on July 1 for Microsoft—with 9,000 layoffs.

Game Developer interviewed several current and former ZeniMax Media developers. Microsoft and Xbox executives were blamed for poorly handling the mass layoffs and the chaos that ensued, with some calling the situation inhumane and disgusting. One former employee described how their work email and Slack access were suddenly disabled without notice, leaving them without communication from Microsoft for hours. Page Branson, a ZWU-CWA union member, said the lack of a layoff process left people upset and confused, not knowing if they would have a job by the end of the day or if the layoffs would happen at all. Once Branson and others had a clearer picture of who was and wasn’t affected, Branson noted that some of those laid off were vital and integral members of the staff, particularly for The Elder Scrolls Online.

“It’s not okay. It wasn’t normal. I don’t care how many times they try to make it seem normal—it’s not. The way they do it is inhumane. I don’t care how many times they say it’s dignified or that they want to do it respectfully—it’s not. Some people were here for 15 years and then suddenly gone. Forcing people to rush to type a goodbye message to their colleagues on Slack, with whom they’ve been working on various projects that have been making your corporation money for 15 years, is disgusting. It’s disgusting. If I could get any message to any executive right now, it would be to review this process because it’s not normal, and it’s not okay,” said Autumn Mitchell, a senior QA developer and a member of the ZWU-CWA union.

Branson also discussed what may be the most significant long-term impact of such mass layoffs—the sudden loss of institutional knowledge possessed by developers who have worked at the studio for years. “A lot of practical knowledge just disappeared overnight. Everyone who left now has to pick up the pieces as best they can. The dwindling morale and general confusion has extended into our workflow. We used to have very reliable people working on things, but they’re no longer there. They were integral. I feel like they were just numbers on a sheet that got cut. The real application of what they were doing was integral to making everything run correctly,” said Branson.

Mitchell added that they estimate a third of ZeniMax Media’s institutional knowledge disappeared due to the layoffs. They don’t know how the remaining employees can continue producing games of the same quality. He doesn’t see how it is possible to move forward without bringing back critical members of the affected team.

These kinds of cuts and the way they were handled make it hard to imagine Xbox and Microsoft having a real future in the gaming industry beyond publishing.

Source: WCCFTech, Game Developer