Jobs lost at Elder Scrolls Online customer support

The Connacht Tribune is reporting that Zenimax Online Studios, developer of The Elder Scrolls Online, has laid off the majority of staff at its European Customer Services Centre in Galway, Ireland. According to the local newspaper 300 jobs were cut with only five or six employees remaining on the premises.

However, in response to the first report, Bethesda has issued a statement denying these claims and stating that around 50 people were laid-off in August, and that the office remains open for business.

"Following the successful console launch of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited in June, we have a thriving console and PC online community," the Bethesda representative told Eurogamer.

"We adjusted customer support levels in mid-August by reducing staffing by approximately 50 people to reflect the game's stability and the needs of our players. This is a normal practice. We have been diligently working with the IDA, and the employees affected by this decision since the summer. We are disappointed by the inaccuracies in the report of the Connacht Tribune."

Zenimax Online Studios is based in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The company originally announced plans for the support center in 2011. This was subsidised by government agency IDA Ireland to attract business to the country.

The Elder Scrolls Online launched in 2014 for PC. The game's mandatory subscription service was abolished in favour of a free-to-play service supported by microtransactions in January 2015, all ahead of the game's console launch in June (and you can read our review of that here).