Oblivion Remastered and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater devs face major layoffs. AI and poor Bethesda deal reportedly to „blame”

According to reliable sources like Gauthier Andres, it appears that a significant number of employees – approximately 300 – from Studio Virtuos, the team responsible for revamping games such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, have unfortunately been let go.

Approximately 7% of the company’s workforce, totaling around 4200 employees, have been let go. This reduction primarily impacted the branches based in China, as well as the subsidiaries in France that were deeply involved in the remastering project of the movie Oblivion.

Restoring the specified edition of the Elder Scrolls series proved to be a considerable task for the company, as their agreement with Bethesda did not offer reasonable royalties or increased payment if Oblivion Remastered turned out successful (which it indeed has). Consequently, the management halted wage increases and decreased bonuses, causing employee worry about potential layoffs.

Based on what Andres shared, a protest was arranged at Virtuos Lyon following the revelation about potential cuts. Additionally, it’s been rumored that the studio is actively working towards increased adoption of AI in their projects, similar to the King group who reportedly replaced terminated employees with artificial intelligence.

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2025-07-17 16:32