Last week’s Microsoft layoffs, a seemingly never-ending source of terrible and sobering news, included several members of the Elder Scrolls Online’s leadership team. According to a WARN notice, studio head Jo Burba is among those departing, despite having only stepped into that role around the time of last year’s mass layoffs at Microsoft. With him and several other key figures on the outs, a “transition” to a new leadership team for the MMO is reportedly underway.

As first reported by Game File, Burba, executive producer Susan Kath, studio game director Rich Lambert, and production director Ala Diaz have all been given their walking papers. That’s left Microsoft with the small problem that these are folks who’ve been key to planning out the Elder Scrolls Online’s future following 2025’s mass cuts at Xbox, which saw an in-development MMO helmed by ZeniMax Online Studios founder Matt Firor cancelled.

The company’s answer is reportedly a plan to keep the laid off leadership around “over the next few months”, as control’s handed over to Josh Henderson, ZeniMax’s former head of business operations and Nick Giacomini, who was promoted to ESO game director in August 2025.

“We have tremendous confidence in Josh and Nick, the future of this studio, and the continued growth of ESO,” the departing high-level devs wrote in a notice informing ZeniMax staff of the change in leadership. “With exciting experiences still ahead for our players as we wrap up work for Update 51 and beyond, we believe that your passion, creativity, and commitment to each other and the community will continue serving as the heartbeat of ESO.”

Senior encounter designer Morgan Goin, another developer laid off from ZeniMax in last week’s cuts, painted a less upbeat picture of the MMO’s future in a recent interview with 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. ZeniMax’s public line following the layoffs was that they’d need to take some time “to evaluate the work in front of us and then lock down an updated schedule”.

379 ZeniMax jobs in Maryland have been eliminated as part of the layoffs in total, according to the WARN notice. Solidarity to all the devs affected and those who remain at the studio.