Former Elder Scrolls On-line chief confirms Microsoft's 2025 massacre drove his departure from ZeniMax: 'Venture Blackbird was the sport I had waited my total profession to create'
Former Elder Scrolls On-line director Matt Firor has revealed his purpose for unexpectedly leaving ZeniMax On-line Studios in July 2025 after practically 20 years with the corporate, and it’ll in all probability come as no shock that Microsoft’s summertime massacre is in charge.
Microsoft laid off roughly 9,000 individuals on July 2, 2025, lots of them from its Xbox division—a bloodbath made much more grotesque by the phrases of Xbox chief Phil Spencer, who mentioned because the axe fell that the corporate’s gaming enterprise had “by no means appeared stronger,” The cuts additionally included a number of cancellations together with the Excellent Darkish reboot (and the closure of the studio making it), Uncommon’s Everwild venture, and an unannounced MMO in growth at ZeniMax, codenamed Blackbird.
Glad New Yr everybody. I’ve been fairly quiet the final six months, however I posted this message on LinkedIn late yesterday simply to present everybody an replace. I’ll put it right here simply to verify it will get round
— @thefiror.bsky.social (@thefiror.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-01-02T16:47:19.324Z
The lack of Blackbird is what spurred Firor, an business veteran who co-founded Mythic Leisure in 1995, to stroll away from a studio he helped launch in 2007.
“Venture Blackbird was the sport I had waited my total profession to create, and having it canceled led to my resignation,” Firor wrote in a January 1 message posted on LinkedIn. “My coronary heart and ideas are all the time with the impacted staff members, lots of whom I had labored 20+ years with, and all of whom have been essentially the most devoted, amazingly gifted group of builders within the business.”
Firor additionally mentioned that he’s not “instantly concerned” in any tasks being put collectively by former ZeniMax workers, equivalent to Sackbird Studios, based in October 2025 by a bunch of former Elder Scrolls On-line and Venture Blackbird builders. “I’m advising a few of them informally, however I’m not main them,” Firor wrote. “They’re in good fingers with their respective leaders and I can not wait to see what they provide you with.”
Firor mentioned he nonetheless hasn’t decided what his subsequent huge step can be: He is been advising and investing in small groups and startups, “however I’ve not but significantly contemplated spinning up a brand new growth studio.”
As for The Elder Scrolls On-line itself, new ZeniMax boss Jo Burba mentioned in August 2025 that “the sport isn’t going anyplace,” however it certain does not sound like morale on the studio is in a superb place: Describing the post-cuts ZeniMax as a “carcass of staff,” senior QA tester Autumn Mitchell mentioned a couple of weeks after the layoffs that “Microsoft simply took every little thing that would have been nice concerning the tradition and collaboration and decimated it.”