Of the many ways to start the year, Microsoft’s may be the least auspicious. Confirming last January that they were going to cut around 1,900 jobs after their acquisition of Activision Blizzard, they did not want to clarify exactly which employees would be affected. Something that makes a terrible situation even worse, leaving hundreds of people in the dark about whether they will still have a job in a month.
According to Insider Gaming, one of the possible affected by these cuts is Bethesda France. This subsidiary of Bethesda, with 12 years of experience, employed 15 people and their work focused mainly on the marketing and publishing of Bethesda games for France.
All of this seems to be confirmed by several sources that have spoken with Insider Gaming. The most notable and vocal about it has been Scotty Cool, formerly the community manager of Bethesda France, who lamented in a tweet on April 22nd about leaving the company after having worked there for eight years. In a subsequent tweet, he clarified that the situation was due to the closure of Bethesda France, all of which was caused by the mass layoffs announced by Microsoft last January.
While this may seem like a minor loss for some people, it is not at all. First of all, because fifteen people are losing their jobs. But also because this could mean a reduction in the quality of Bethesda’s releases in the French market, since now all this work will have to be produced by independent agencies. These agencies, for obvious reasons, do not always have the same level of involvement and care as an in-house office.
Unfortunately, this is not the first of similar cases that have occurred between last year and this one. Multiple European offices have been closed by numerous companies, claiming the need to cut expenses. This has meant less attention to the European market, with less marketing and media availability. That is why, even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, this is not good news for Microsoft or Bethesda. Much less for the players.
