All articles tagged with #zenimax
Insider Gaming verified two minutes of in‑engine Unreal Engine 4 footage for ZeniMax Online Studio’s cancelled MMO Project Blackbird, leaked online and showing lighting work; Microsoft canceled Blackbird in July 2025 amid mass layoffs, with the title reportedly aiming for a 2028 release and a job cut of around 300 developers, including the studio president Matt Firor.
ZeniMax's highly anticipated sci-fi MMORPG 'Project Blackbird' was canceled during Microsoft's restructuring, despite high praise from Xbox executives. Leaked footage reveals creature models, animations, and character customization, but the project was shelved, impacting over 200 developers. The game was set to feature a vast open world and high mobility gameplay.
ZeniMax staff criticize Microsoft's mass layoffs, describing them as inhumane and chaotic, with many workers affected and key knowledge lost, leaving the remaining employees to face a bleak future amidst studio cancellations and project shutdowns.
ZeniMax employees criticize Microsoft's recent mass layoffs, describing the process as inhumane and chaotic, with significant emotional and practical impacts on staff, despite Microsoft's public messaging of success and growth. Union support has helped mitigate some effects, but morale remains low amid ongoing industry layoffs.
Microsoft has canceled ZeniMax's ambitious alien noir-themed MMO, Project Blackbird, after several years of development, despite positive early feedback and detailed plans for gameplay, story, and world-building. The game was set to feature a rich open world on the planet Soteria, with deep customization, traversal, and co-op gameplay, but was shelved as part of Microsoft's recent layoffs affecting numerous Xbox projects and studios.
Microsoft's Xbox leadership, including CEO Phil Spencer, was reportedly very impressed with an unannounced ZeniMax Online Studios game called Blackbird, but the project was unexpectedly canceled in 2024, leading to potential layoffs and internal turmoil amid broader company restructuring and focus on AI investments.
Microsoft has initiated a significant round of layoffs affecting its gaming division, including Zenimax, King, Raven Software, and Turn 10, as part of broader organizational restructuring aimed at focusing on strategic growth areas. Approximately 9,000 employees, or 4% of its global workforce, are impacted, with efforts to support affected staff through severance and internal job opportunities. Despite these cuts, Microsoft remains highly profitable with strong revenue and net income.
Workers at ZeniMax, a subsidiary of Microsoft, have gone on strike over remote work policies and outsourcing issues. The strike involves quality assurance testers in Texas and Maryland, who are part of the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA union. This action highlights ongoing tensions over remote work policies in the video game industry, as companies roll back flexible work-from-home arrangements established during the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft has acknowledged the strike and expressed willingness to address concerns at the bargaining table.
ZeniMax Studios employees are striking over the company's remote work policy and outsourcing of quality assurance tasks, which the union claims was done without notification. The Communication Workers of America has filed an unfair labor practice charge against ZeniMax, citing concerns over job security amid industry-wide layoffs. The strike involves ZeniMax Workers United-CWA members across the US, highlighting ongoing tensions in the video game industry regarding return-to-office mandates and job outsourcing.
Hundreds of unionized workers from ZeniMax, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are striking for a day to protest the company's alleged lack of bargaining over remote work and outsourcing quality assurance jobs without union consultation. This action follows a recent unfair labor practice charge filed by the Communications Workers of America Union against ZeniMax. The strike highlights tensions within Microsoft's gaming division, which has faced significant layoffs despite recent acquisitions and claims of a healthy business outlook by Xbox head Phil Spencer.
Unionized employees at ZeniMax Studios are striking to protest Microsoft's remote work policy and outsourcing of quality assurance tasks. The strike, organized by ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, highlights concerns over job security and lack of progress in negotiations. This action follows a recent unfair labor practice charge against ZeniMax and is part of broader unionization efforts within Microsoft subsidiaries, including Activision Blizzard.
Hundreds of Bethesda video game workers, part of the largest video games union in the U.S., are striking over Microsoft's outsourcing of quality assurance work and remote work policies. The union, representing over 300 workers, claims Microsoft has not addressed their concerns at the bargaining table, prompting a one-day strike. They seek to limit outsourcing and demand more flexible remote work options, as current policies require office attendance twice a week. The union has filed an unfair labor complaint against ZeniMax, a Microsoft subsidiary.
Rumors suggest that Doom: The Dark Ages, a medieval-inspired Doom game, will be announced at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 9 and will be a multiplatform release, including the PlayStation 5. Despite id Software being a first-party Xbox studio after Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax, the game is expected to be available on multiple platforms.
ZeniMax Workers United-CWA, a union representing testers within ZeniMax-owned studios, has reached a groundbreaking agreement with the company regarding the use of AI in the workplace. The agreement commits ZeniMax to "human-centered AI implementations" and outlines six guiding principles for AI use. The union will be notified of any AI implementation that may impact workers and will have the opportunity to bargain over those impacts. The agreement aims to protect workers and consumers from potential harms associated with AI. Additionally, Microsoft has agreed to allow 77 contract workers to join the ZeniMax union, with some being hired as full-time employees and others as temporary employees.
During a November 2021 meeting, Xbox's Phil Spencer reportedly made the decision to make all ZeniMax games exclusive to Xbox, not just new IP, according to chat conversations revealed during the Microsoft FTC hearing. Xbox CFO Tim Stuart and Xbox's Matt Booty discussed the meeting, confirming that Spencer had instructed that all ZeniMax games going forward would be Xbox exclusives. This decision raised concerns about profit issues in the deal model, as it factored in releasing some Bethesda games on PlayStation. The FTC has cited this exclusivity decision as evidence against Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.