On August 11th Xbox CEO Asha Sharma paid a visit to Bethesda's office in Rockville, Maryland, to catch a glimpse of The Elder Scrolls VI. To mark the occasion, Communications Workers of America workers staged a rather memorable protest by deploying a giant inflatable rat (known as 'Scabby’) outside the office and raising a sea of red flags to represent each person laid off by Xbox under the leadership of Sharma.
According to a statement sent to Game Developer by OneBGS-CWA union member Nathan Hahn, the protest was designed to force Sharma to reckon with the human cost of the mass layoffs that have become the norm within Microsoft and other studios across the video game industry.
In July, Sharma confirmed plans to eliminate 3,200 jobs across Microsoft's video game division by the end of the current fiscal year—starting with immediate cuts at major studios including Obsidian, id Software, and ZeniMax Online Studios. It marked the fifth round of mass layoffs at Xbox in three years.
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