The OneBGS union, representing over 240 unionized workers at Bethesda Game Studios, has announced plans for a "Save Our Devs" rally on July 15 at ZeniMax offices in protest of the sweeping job cuts across Xbox.
This connects with Microsoft lays off 3,200 Xbox employees as four studios depart in largest restructuring in Xbox history.
The protest, scheduled to take place at ZeniMax studios in Rockville, Austin, Dallas, and Montreal, comes after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed 3,200 roles would be eliminated from Microsoft's gaming division, with 1,600 employees let go immediately and the remainder set to depart by the end of the current fiscal year in June 2027.
In an email to members, the OneBGS Mobilizing Committee said Microsoft and ZeniMax leadership had made the devastating decision to slash over 440 positions across Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios, id Software, and ZeniMax corporate functions. At Bethesda Game Studios alone, 35 positions have been cut in the United States alongside at least 12 more in Montreal. WARN notices have confirmed 136 layoffs at id Software's Rockville office and 379 ZeniMax workers across two Maryland locations.
"The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear," the union wrote. "We won't let that happen. Our next steps are to mobilize. We need every single member visible and unified."
Bethesda's unionized workforce, which organized under the OneBGS banner in 2024, holds legal rights that non-unionized studios do not. The union said Microsoft is framing the cuts as an "entrepreneurial change in the scope of business," claiming a transition from a studio-based model to a franchise-based model. The union rejected that characterization.
"Changing a title on a PowerPoint slide does not erase our legal right to a say in our working conditions," the email read.
Through a process known as effects bargaining, the union intends to negotiate the terms of the layoffs directly with Microsoft. Its demands include preferential transfers that would place affected Bethesda workers into open roles across Xbox and Microsoft first, stronger severance packages, extended healthcare coverage, and recall rights that would ensure laid-off members are the first rehired when Bethesda expands.
"We are heading to the table to fight for every single affected worker," the committee said.
The union encouraged members to stand in solidarity to show management "we mean business" and to ensure Microsoft is forced to "think twice before ever attempting something like this again." It reminded members that as certified union workers engaging in protected concerted activity, they have the legal right to participate in the march without retaliation.
Sharma's restructuring plan, which she described as the most significant in Xbox history, is driven by a belief that Microsoft's gaming business "is not healthy." The layoffs represent roughly one-fifth of Xbox's workforce. In an internal memo, Sharma said the changes were necessary for the division to "reset" after failing to capitalize on major investments including Xbox Game Pass and its multiplatform strategy.
The impact of the cuts extends well beyond Bethesda. At id Software, the developer behind Doom and Quake, the layoffs have been described as severe enough to reportedly reduce the legendary studio to a support-sized team. Obsidian Entertainment faces at least 52 layoffs confirmed through WARN notices. ZeniMax Online Studios, which runs The Elder Scrolls Online, has signaled changes to its content roadmap with fewer staff. Blizzard has also eliminated a smaller number of roles in China.
Bethesda Game Studios staff have spoken about the effect on their upcoming projects, including The Elder Scrolls 6. Multiple current and former employees have described the loss of team members who had been with the studio since the Morrowind era as having a substantial and cascading effect on development. Morale has plummeted, with photos of makeshift memorials for laid-off colleagues placed in common areas at the Dallas and Rockville offices.
Amid the fallout, it has also emerged that Sharma will co-lead the US Federal Reserve's Productivity and Jobs task force on employment, a role that multiple industry observers have noted sits in tension with the scale of job losses announced under her leadership.
The "Save Our Devs" rally on July 15 will mark one of the most visible worker-led responses to the ongoing wave of consolidation and restructuring that has defined the games industry over the past several years. The union's push for preferential hiring, extended benefits, and recall rights could set a precedent for how organized labor responds to mass layoffs at Microsoft-owned studios.
