Virtuos, the studio that developed The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, is laying off seven percent of its staff, or around 270 employees. Gauthier Andres, a reporter and co-founder at Origami, was first to report the news, which the studio later confirmed. Virtuos has provided support on a number of large game projects — including a recent patch for Cyberpunk 2077 — and employs more than 4,200 people across the US, Europe and Asia.
The company said the layoffs are primarily affecting "teams facing lower occupancy and slower demand due to structural shifts in the industry." It's firing around 200 people in Asia and approximately 70 in Europe. "Fewer than 10" of those are in France, where the core team working on Oblivion Remastered is based. Virtuos says it's offering affected workers layoff packages, career transition assistance and, "where possible," job opportunities across its network.
"Over the past 12 months, Virtuos has deepened its commitment to premium co-development through key acquisitions of Beyond-FX, Pipeworks, and Umanaïa in North America, as well as Third Kind Games and Abstraction in Europe," Virtuos said in a statement. "These studios enhance our strengths in VFX, design, Unreal Engine programming and creative development. This ongoing investment reflects our intent to grow in areas where our expertise and scale create lasting value, while selectively exiting service segments where demand is weakening. We need to better match the locations of our teams with those of our clients to support the increasingly iterative nature of creative co-development. This alignment is why the current reorganization has a greater impact on our teams in Asia."
Besides reviving Bethesda classics, Virtuos has contributed work to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and several ongoing live service games, like Dune: Awakening and Sea of Thieves. Nothing about the company's output or the critical reception of its games would suggest it needs to conduct layoffs, but that reflects the current precarious state of the games industry. Even having theoretically steady work doing post-release support and game remasters isn't enough.
Virtuos' layoffs follows the sweeping cuts Microsoft made to its Xbox division in early July. Microsoft reportedly cancelled games, like Rare's long-in-development Everwild, and shutdown whole studios, like The Initiative. Romero Games, which had an unannounced funding deal with Microsoft, was also forced to cancel its current project, though it hopes to find a new publishing partner.
Update July 17, 2025, 9:57AM ET: Added confirmation of the layoffs from Virtuos.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/virtuos-the-studio-behind-oblivion-remastered-is-laying-off-around-270-employees-135722222.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/gaming/virtuos-the-studio-behind-oblivion-remastered-is-laying-off-around-270-employees-135722222.html?src=rssLogin to add comment
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