Even if you've never played Skyrim – which is incredibly unlikely – you've seen the opening. It's developed something of a life of its own over the years, as we sit through it when we want to make a new character, which for most fans is a fairly common occurrence. I can't even fathom how many times that opening has been played collectively, but needless to say, millions have experienced it by now.
However, that wasn't enough to spare those who worked on it from Xbox's latest round of layoffs. It has now been confirmed that one of the artists who were fired worked on the opening of Skyrim and created one of the first characters we ever saw in the game.
This was confirmed by the main character at Bethesda, Ben Carnow, who still works at Bethesda. At Bluesky, he has talked about how the layoffs affected the art team. As part of this, he highlighted the work of Ray Lederer, who he worked with on Skyrim.
“Fun fact! When you start a new Skyrim game, the first thing you see is literally art created by laid-off concept artist Ray Lederer,” Carnow writes. “A slap in the face to all Elder Scrolls fans.”
He goes on to reveal how much this has affected the Elder Scrolls team. As we previously reported, artist Christiane Meister was also fired, after designing the Khajits and Argonians in three different Elder Scrolls games. Carnow reveals that she is also behind one of the iconic promo images for Skyrim, along with Dane Olds, who was also fired.
The loss of talent here is huge. And all of this is happening because it's believed that Bethesda is being told to go all-in on The Elder Scrolls 6. While there are still people left on the art team, this is a big hit, and those who remain will no doubt be affected by these layoffs.
The layoffs have been felt across Xbox's studios, but especially those under ZeniMax. The Elder Scrolls Online team is believed to have been downsized significantly, leaving the MMO's future uncertain. Worst hit is believed to be id Software, which may have lost up to 75 percent of its workforce – while launching DLC for Doom: The Dark Age to positive reviews.
- Released
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November 11, 2011
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Use of alcohol, blood and grime, intense violence, sexual themes
- Engine
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Creation
- Expansions
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Skyrim: Dragonborn, Skyrim: Hearthfire, Skyrim: Dawnguard
