'Surprised there was anyone left to post this': Fans react as The Eld…

For the first time ever, seasonal content is here for The Elder Scrolls Online. Return of the Thieves Guild, its inaugural season, has launched for the long-running MMO, something you'd expect fans would be all abuzz for—if not for the fact that ZeniMax Online Studios has been gutted as part of the mass layoffs at Xbox this week.

Yeah, the timing on this one ain't great. The developer of the MMO, which has reportedly generated over $2 billion in its lifetime, has been hit especially hard. We learned this week that ZeniMax Online lost 213 employees this week, which when combined with more layoffs over the past 12 months, means the studio has lost more than half of the development team of TESO.

So, it's not surprising that this massive content drop has been met with little discussion of the season itself. Instead, players have mostly been sending well-wishes to the affected development team members—occasionally with a bit of ire for Microsoft. amunra-online.pl

"Surprised there was anyone left to post this," one commenter said in response to the Steam announcement of the season's launch. "So sorry for you guys. Hope you can keep the game going. Or better yet, find independence from MS."

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"Heartbroken for all the developers who were laid off," said another. "Wishing the best for everyone. ♥️Hopefully this vicious cycle will end one day"

"ESO has wonderful, passionate developers behind it and to lose them breaks my heart!" another commenter wrote.

"To all those who got laid off, thanks for all the content you gave us, 5000 hours and counting," said another.

Not everyone was quite as polite. "May whoever fires talented people like you BURN IN HELL along with all of Microsoft," one commenter said. "I hope those who lost their jobs find companies more worthy of your talent."

The Return of the Thieves Guild trailer on YouTube got a similar reaction: not many people talking about the trailer itself, but mostly expressing warm sentiments to the developers.

"Like everyone else at Bethesda, you guys don't deserve what has happened to you, and I am very sorry," one commenter said. "Stay strong and keep up the good work."

Even non-fans were sympathetic: "I'm sorry, even though I wasn't that into ESO you guys deserved better," said another commenter. "I hope everyone affected by the layoffs lands on their feet."

And yes, there was a bit of chatter about the new season and how it looks—yet even those sentiments were still typically focused on the people who make the game.

"This game and all the work you've put into creating such engaging and beautiful art, content, and stories has brought my friends and I a lot of joy over the years," a YouTube commenter said. "I always look forward to hopping on and seeing what's new—there is literally something for everyone in this game. Can't wait to see what you all come up with next, I'm happy to keep supporting and I hope everyone that was cruelly and needlessly laid off finds great opportunities in their future."

And of course, a few in the YouTube comments were a little snarkier about the mass-layoffs from Microsoft, particularly in regard to the poorly-timed launch of Return of the Thieves Guild.

"Media guy must have scheduled this before he was banished to the shadow realm," the top comment reads.

"You can tell there's meant to be a voice-over here," a commenter said, "but bro got fired before he had the chance."

"I would say Microsoft is out there being the real thieves guild," another said, "but the thieves guild still values people's lives over profit."

God of War Laufey will be available on a physical disc, developer Sony Santa Monica has confirmed. This strongly suggests the game will launch before the PS6, which is strongly expected to be a digital only console.

In the before times, this wouldn't be much of a story, but in a world where the biggest game to release this century, GTA 6, seemingly has no plans for a traditional physical launch, and more pertinent to this story, where PlayStation is ending production of physical discs, it's pretty big news. For physical game collectors, it's one of the biggest upcoming PS5 games on the horizon and one more they'll be able to save a space for on their shelves, like the good old days.

Responding to questions on Twitter, the official Sony Santa Monica account confirms: "We can confirm God of War Laufey will be available on disc."

God of War Laufey is the next mainline game in Sony Santa Monica's God of War series and the third game in the Norse saga. Instead of being a direct sequel to 2022's God of War Ragnarok, Laufey's story picks up directly following the scene depicting Faye's funeral from 2018 God of War, serving as a sort of connective link between God of War and God of War Ragnarok. And as you might expect from the title, longtime series protagonist Kratos isn't the lead protagonist here. Instead, players take control of the much more agile, but equally powerful, Laufey, Kratos's second wife and the mother of Atreus.

There's no release date for God of War Laufey yet, but again, if it's getting a disc, it's likely to launch as a PS5 game instead of a PS6 exclusive. Analysts think the PS6 could launch around 2028.

God of War Laufey proves women are still gaining ground in gaming, and I'm thrilled Kratos is sitting this one out

I've seen a lot of complaints and concerns about the layoffs at Xbox that put 3,200 people out of work and resulted in the spinoff of four studios—eventually five, once the Arkane situation is sorted. One I haven't run across is a claim that it's all part of an effort to take jobs away from Americans and replace them with non-Americans on H-1B visas. That changed today, though, when Microsoft chief communications officer Frank X. Shaw took to social media to deny the claim.

The allegations are apparently rooted in stories like this one from Fox News, with the headline, "Fury erupts as US brand fires 1,600 employees after securing thousands of foreign worker visas."

Fox noted that Microsoft is laying off roughly 4,800 employees in total, the bulk of them from Xbox, while at the same time acquiring authorization "to hire from foreign countries 2,273 employer-sponsored, non-immigrant workers under what is known as the H-1B visa program."

Quoting a series of random people on X, the report states that "furious online critics claim that American jobs are being unfairly handed to foreigners," adding that "some online critics [have] claimed Sharma's Indian heritage played a role in firing the Americans, given the percentage of H-1B workers from India."

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US business to hire foreign workers to fill certain speciality occupations. Criticism of the program and its impact on US workers has waxed and waned over the years, but it's taken on particular prominence during the second Trump administration: Earlier this year, Trump attempted to impose a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, although that was eventually overturned by courts. The Republican party continues to lean into it as a wedge issue, however: Vice President JD Vance, for instance, said during a recent speech that "American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters, and the Department of Labor is fighting back against it."

It's the sort of rhetoric that can lead to bad places, and the accusations of H-1B visa abuse, accompanied by plenty of naked racism, has spawned countless posts, re-posts, and likes, particularly on X—enough to prompt Shaw to speak out.

"Lots of bad information out there—let's clear it up," Shaw wrote in his message. "Recent workforce changes were made to restructure the Xbox business because it is not healthy. They were not made to replace employees with foreign workers.

"The H-1B figures being referenced are Microsoft-wide visa renewals and new hire applications. They are not specific to Xbox and represent a small percentage of Microsoft's overall workforce. And the majority of roles impacted were not American roles."

Shaw also made a point of saying that "Xbox is the largest employer of American workers in the gaming industry and the largest American gaming company," and that its CEO is "American born, raised, and educated."

Earlier this week, the US Federal Reserve appointed Sharma to a new Productivity and Jobs task force, where she will help "assess the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve's policy judgments."

The Palworld 1.0 update sure is a big one, and with all of the new pals, weapons, and zones to track it's easy to miss the little things—like new resources for crafting. As I climbed the revamped tech tree again, I breezed through most recipes until I ran into hardwood. It's a new tier of the basic building block you'll see pop up in later level recipes (around 40 to 50), after planks.

After deforesting a few islands, I finally realized I'd missed some spots to farm hardwood that were right in front of me. To save you the same headache, here's how to get hardwood in Palworld.

Palworld hardwood location

Make sure you gather a hefty stack and unlock a few of the surrounding fast travel statues, or just make a nearby base for easy access. You'll need 10 hardwood per High Quality Wooden Board when you unlock the craft at level 43 in the tech tree.