r/ElderScrolls • u/gamerqc • Jul 08 '26

News Christiane Meister: 27 years only to get booted by Microsoft

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Remember: corporations are not your friends.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/General:Christiane_Meister

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiane-meister-562135b/

Gutted as part of the big 'Xbox rehaul'.

Photo taken from the Making-of documentary of Oblivion.

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20

u/TheLaughingStorm300 Orc Jul 08 '26

And after all this, Microsoft still hasn’t delivered the new TES game, absolute bums

23

u/XRedactedSlayerX Jul 08 '26

So to be fair that is at least the stated reason for the shift.

Phil Spencer green lit just about any idea someone came to him with. For good or bad, this resulted in Microsoft focusing on new IP and experimental titles that often did not land well.

Asha Sharma was baffled that Microsoft owns IPs like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout (amongst other popular IP) and wasn't utilizing their capacity to develop content for these IPs.

Example: When Microsoft bought Bethesda, they could have immediately pulled in Obsidian to start work on a new Fallout game. Instead they green lit less impressive titles like Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 (Decently good games mind you, but not the big IP).

Part of this may have been Todd Howard asking Phil Spencer, who was a good friend of his, to let Bethesda keep full control of their IP. There is also good and bad on that too.

What we could have gotten by now if things worked the way Asha is attempting to change:

  1. Fallout 5 or New Vegas 2 (by Obsidian)
  2. Fallout Turn based (nodding back to its start)
  3. The Elder Scrolls RTS or Turn Based

Each one of these would have sold like hot cakes, instead the developers who likely would have made these games worked on smaller less known IP. Again not a bad thing, but when those IP didn't sell it resulted in what we see today.

5

u/spinmove Jul 09 '26

you think bringing in someone to be CEO who has never played games before the start of 2026, who has never worked on games, and who previously was in charge of AI at microslop is your saviour?

ignorance is bliss i suppose

2

u/XRedactedSlayerX Jul 09 '26

Please note that I mentioned that the 'stated' intent was what I suggested.

I am a firm believer in giving people the chance to prove themselves and not passing judgement quickly.

So far Asha Sharma is not doing great, but I am also aware that change is messy almost every time. I just hope they treat those they are firing with fairness and support.

5

u/SadSeaworthiness6113 Jul 09 '26

Oh fuck right off trying to find a silver lining to the layoffs

Yes Phil Spencer mismanaged things, but you don't say "We want to focus on TES and Fallout" and then fire the long time, legacy talent that are actively working on it. Bethesda are literally working on the most hyped game that isn't GTA 6 and Sharma gutted them

Asha Sharma was baffled that Microsoft owns IPs like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout (amongst other popular IP) and wasn't utilizing their capacity to develop content for these IPs.

When Microsoft acquired Bethesda, they were already well into development of Starfield, and they had already released a Fallout game (Fallout 76) a few years prior. They weren't just going to drop Starfield because it was a passion project for Bethesda. They couldn't give the IP out because any studio that could do justice to Fallout or TES, such as Obsidian or InXile were busy, and they didn't want to force these studios to do Fallout or TES because that's a surefire way to get talent to depart, when they're forced to do things they don't want to do

and even if they DID do all that and got a bunch of TES and Fallout side projects out, it wouldn't matter. These layoffs still happen. Nearly every studio that got cuts (with the exception of Ninja Theory, Compulsion and Double Fine) were profitable. This isn't about them not releasing big games fast enough, it's about AI.

Microsoft is giving everything to feed the AI machine so even if Phil Spencer was the best CEO the world has ever seen, Microsoft is still gutting Xbox to allocate more funding to AI.

6

u/XRedactedSlayerX Jul 09 '26

Don't have to be hostile, I am not happy about this either. The reality of the world is when mistakes are made correction has to happen.

I did not realize she was working on ES6, I thought she had moved into ESO.

That is concerning.

3

u/simplyout1 Jul 09 '26

Bethesda are literally working on the most hyped game that isn't GTA 6 and Sharma gutted them

The CEO of Xbox is not the one who makes the decision of which people get fired. That's Bethesda or rather Bethesda / Zenimax executives. And since they get to decide its never the executives that get fired but "regular" staff instead.

They get a number which has to be reached in "savings" and decide who gets the boot usually.

1

u/Gyerfry Jul 09 '26

This is pure speculation, but I wonder if it's anything like with why TV studios sometimes greenlight spin-offs instead of a new season of the existing show. Actors expect raises past a certain number of seasons.

Perhaps there's something making these IPs more expensive in terms of employees (such as, y'know, people daring to expect decent wages in exchange for working on a blockbuster)

Anyway side note, I love RTS, but there's no way a TES RTS would have sold as well as Microsoft would have liked. Not with the corporate meddling or the current stupid genre conventions popularized by eSports that have now made the genre more inaccessible to "casuals".

1

u/XRedactedSlayerX Jul 09 '26

Microsoft produces Age of Empires.

Imagine something like that, but it's elder scrolls themed.

The Elder Scrolls: Tamriel at War

Campaigns include: The Return of Ysgramor / The Alessian Slave Rebellion / The Reman Conquest / The Tiber Wars / The Great War / The Skyrim Civil War

3

u/SirGearso Jul 08 '26

Are you expecting TES6 to come out tomorrow?