Former The Elder Scrolls Online Director Explains His Departure From ZeniMax — Microsoft Layoffs to Blame
Diana Golenko
Former The Elder Scrolls Online game director Matt Firor has finally explained why he unexpectedly left ZeniMax Online Studios in July 2025 after nearly 20 years with the company. The reason was Microsoft’s large-scale summer layoffs, which hit the Xbox division and internal studios particularly hard.
On July 2, 2025, Microsoft laid off around 9,000 employees, many of whom were tied to the company’s gaming business. The wave of cuts was accompanied by the shutdown and cancellation of several projects, including the Perfect Dark reboot, Rare’s Everwild, and an unannounced ZeniMax MMO codenamed Project Blackbird.
It was the cancellation of Blackbird that proved decisive for Firor. In a LinkedIn post dated January 1, he admitted that the project had been the “game of a lifetime” for him:
Project Blackbird was the game I had waited my entire career to create, and having it canceled led to my resignation. My heart and thoughts are always with the impacted team members, many of whom I had worked 20+ years with, and all of whom were the most dedicated, amazingly talented group of developers in the industry.
Firor is an industry veteran and a co-founder of Mythic Entertainment, and he also helped launch ZeniMax Online Studios back in 2007. Following his departure, a number of former ZeniMax employees went on to establish Sackbird Studios, a new independent team with no outside investors and full creative control. However, Firor stresses that he is not directly involved in their projects:
I am advising some of them informally, but I am not leading them. They are in good hands with their respective leaders and I can't wait to see what they come up with.
At present, Firor is focusing on consulting and investing in small teams and startups. According to him, he has not yet seriously considered founding his own studio.
Meanwhile, it was recently reported that Microsoft sold 40% fewer Xbox Series X/S consoles compared to the same period last year.
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Microsoft sold half as many Xbox Series X|S in 2025 as it did a year earlier