You have to check this out — it's genuinely wild. The Elder Scrolls Online team is down about 50% after those Xbox layoffs, and they just told anyone who will listen that they are now roughly the same size id Software was when Quake launched in 1996! That means only a few dozen people went from building one of the largest live MMOs on the planet to standing where John Carmack's team stood when they shipped Doom. They lost nearly double their staff — around 98 good developers - but kept moving forward, which is both devastating and honestly inspiring at the same time.
Despite being cut in half, they still dropped Chapter 40 just last month on October 25th and announced Chapters 41-43 are coming this winter. They're shipping new content every few months with a skeleton crew while maintaining an MMO that millions of people play daily. That should tell you everything about how much can be achieved by small teams, which I know many of the indie devs on here will appreciate hearing today.
It also highlights what might be happening in broader gaming — Microsoft is laying off half its Bethesda team while simultaneously championing independent game development with separate programs. Not exactly a cohesive message from anyone, but it proves that you don't need hundreds of people to build something great; id Software created Quake I and II together with just two people at one point. Let this be the signal for every small studio watching: your size doesn't dictate your impact in a way the bigger companies would have you believe.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/elder-scrolls-online-studio-echoes-id-software-claims-to-now-be-the-same-size-it-was-10-years-ago-following-xbox-layoffs/
Despite being cut in half, they still dropped Chapter 40 just last month on October 25th and announced Chapters 41-43 are coming this winter. They're shipping new content every few months with a skeleton crew while maintaining an MMO that millions of people play daily. That should tell you everything about how much can be achieved by small teams, which I know many of the indie devs on here will appreciate hearing today.
It also highlights what might be happening in broader gaming — Microsoft is laying off half its Bethesda team while simultaneously championing independent game development with separate programs. Not exactly a cohesive message from anyone, but it proves that you don't need hundreds of people to build something great; id Software created Quake I and II together with just two people at one point. Let this be the signal for every small studio watching: your size doesn't dictate your impact in a way the bigger companies would have you believe.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/elder-scrolls-online-studio-echoes-id-software-claims-to-now-be-the-same-size-it-was-10-years-ago-following-xbox-layoffs/