Bethesda Boss Tells Staff They Must Focus on 'Our Strongest Franchises' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 5 days ago / 1,875 Views
Bethesda boss Jill Braff following layoffs across Xbox sent out an email to employees stating they need to focus on their biggest franchises.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier did reveal ZeniMax/Bethesda is facing a "significant overhaul and will pivot to focus on its biggest franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein." Reports have claimed id Software and ZeniMax Online Studios have been hit hard.
"To be successful in the future, we need to change course," said Braff in the email (via IGN). "We must strengthen our business, return to sustainable growth, and ensure we can continue investing in our franchises and our players. I know that doesn't make a day like today any easier."
She added, "To best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what's next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole."
Read the entire email from Bethesda boss Jill Braff below:
Team, I want to acknowledge the changes taking place across XBOX, including here at Bethesda, where a number of our colleagues have been impacted. Today's news affects people who have worked alongside us, inspired us, challenged us, and helped build the studios, games, and culture that define Bethesda.
Across our global organization, some employees are leaving the company, while certain countries review strategic options through processes required by local law. While each situation is different, what they share is uncertainty for people in our community.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has been impacted. Your talent, creativity, dedication, and contributions have helped shape Bethesda in meaningful ways, and our immediate focus is supporting you through this transition. I also know this news is difficult for many across our organization, whether you're personally impacted, supporting a teammate, or simply trying to process what comes next.
The intent behind today's announced changes is consistent with the broader direction for XBOX: creating greater focus, improving execution, and positioning our business for long-term success. These shifts also reflect the realities of our industry and business – and our responsibility to ensure Bethesda is operating from a more stable foundation. To be successful in the future, we need to change course. We must strengthen our business, return to sustainable growth, and ensure we can continue investing in our franchises and our players. I know that doesn't make a day like today any easier.
As we look ahead, we will meaningfully evolve how we operate. For decades, Bethesda has organized its business around the individual roadmaps of our largely independent development studios, supported by centralized publishing and corporate teams. This model enabled us to create some of the industry's most beloved franchises. However, rising player expectations, increasing development complexity, and a more competitive market have changed the economics of our industry.
To best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what's next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole. From there, we’ll align the right talent, technology, and resources across the organization to deliver on those priorities. By working more closely across the organization, sharing expertise and capabilities, and focusing our investments on the opportunities with the greatest potential, we believe we can better support our franchises and IP with meaningful long-term potential.
This does not change the importance of exceptional creative work, craftsmanship, and innovation – which is what makes Bethesda special. Our studios’ and teams’ identities, talent, and expertise remain essential to our success. What changes is how we align those strengths, bringing them together around our franchises and IP, to position Bethesda for long-term growth and continued investment in our future.
We will share more about our direction in the weeks and months ahead. But for today, my focus is on the people who have made – and those who will continue to make – Bethesda what it is. Please take care of one another. Reach out to a colleague. Offer support where you can and give people the space they may need as they process today's news.
Even during a challenging time, I remain confident in what we can accomplish together. We have extraordinary talent, some of the most beloved franchises in our industry, and tremendous opportunities ahead. The work we are doing now is about ensuring we are positioned to realize that potential for years to come. Thank you for everything you do for Bethesda, our players, and each other.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Why would you not have your strongest suit/ability/games & ip as your focus ? obviously occasionally you mix things up, if you have a good idea... but like sticking to your strengths, should be obvious right?
Yeah, it's kind of crazy., Take Starfield for instance, that was a rather foolish gamble, Bethesda knew they already had 2 huge IP's in Elder Scrolls and Fallout, knew they had a responsibility to the fans of those series to release games in them frequently, and knew that AAA development times were heading north of 5 years meaning that the absolute soonest new Elder Scrolls and Fallout games could release would be 10 years after the previous. Why in the world, knowing all of that, would you choose to put development on both of your big series on singleplayer hold for 7 years while making a risky new IP?
And then to not pass either of those IP on to other studios, with Todd Howard directing or at least overseeing the game remotely from Bethesda Maryland makes the whole thing even more foolish.
The only responsibility Bethesda has is to its owners. If they feel like they can fulfill that responsibility while exploring new frontiers, they should definitely be able to do so. I don't care about Bethesda Fallout myself, but I've been dying to get my hands on the next Elder Scrolls just like everyone else - but I still think trying out new things is something Bethesda is 100% free to do, even if it results in something like Starfield.
It's not so much Starfield itself that bugs me, I actually enjoyed the game bugs aside. A developer as legendary as Todd Howard deserves the right to make a dream game, like Starfield was for him, once in his career. The problem is moreso that they already had 2 big franchises, more than the usual 1 franchise most studios have going on at a time, and then decided to add a 3rd into the mix, further lengthening release cycles.
There are so many things Bethesda could have done to alleviate that problem, Todd Howard could have trained a replacement director (something he needs to do soonish anyway since he is fast approaching retirement age) to take over the longest waiting on the 3 series, Elder Scrolls, and expanded the studio to the size needed to work on 2 games at once in full development instead of 1 preproduction and 1 full development like usual. He could have let a 3rd party studio develop an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game in order to have a stopgap game to shorten the waiting period, with Todd himself directing it remotely at the same time he was directing Starfield internally. He could have waited until Elder Scrolls 6 released to shorten that series' gap to make Starfield, and then got Obsidian on another Fallout to act as a stopgap there, so that TES 6 would have been the 2023 game (12 years after TES 5) and Starfield the 2028-2029 one.
Instead he decided to keep things going like always, 1 game in full production at a time, except with 3 series now in the rotation, resulting in what is looking like a 17-18 year gap between TES 5 and TES 6, longer than Duke Nukem Forever with it's 14 year gap.
Let's just say that I still stand by what I said, but I also agree with pretty much everything you said. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I agree about starfield. I hope they don't abandon it. Even though i felt the game released incomplete, i feel like they have a blue print to work off and can now focus on improving key areas for a sequel.
Personally I'm wondering what changed. It seems like they've been focusing on the next Elder Scrolls games after Starfield, so was there really something else going on anyway? Was id Software doing something new? I wouldn't want them to become just the Doom studio though, even though that's what they've largely been for a while now...
This seems like good news to me. I used to be a big Bethesda fan. It has been 10 years since they released anything I cared about.
This Xbox acquisition of studios has certainly had great results!
Finally time to take the creative freedom away and start pushing devs on making the best damn games using the best damn IPs. Outside of Starfield, Bethesda should be rotating Fallout and Elder scrolls every few years.
It sounds bad but it will also forever be an embarrassment that they had a fallout tv show releasing to massive success and they didn't even have a new fallout game in the pipleline yet to capitalize on that success.
I mean what new stuff have released outside of those core franchises lately? All I can think of are Starfield and Indiana Jones.
High Rush, Deathloop, Redfall, Ghostwire: Tokyo, plus a bunch of live service stuff that they are pulling back on. Marvel's Blade is way over budget, still not done, and might get axed.
Thanks for the info
every triple A game is over budget and behind schedule. it certainly isn't a unique situation for blade.
