Microsoft’s Xbox division is facing mounting criticism from Bethesda employees after union members launched protests against a new round of layoffs.

Members of the Bethesda Game Studios union have announced “Save Our Devs” protests following job cuts across Microsoft’s gaming operations, which included the dumping of 20% of Xbox staff and the exit of five internal studios. 

Bethesda employees accuse the company of treating the reductions as a “done deal” rather than engaging with affected workers.

“The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear. We won’t let that happen. Our next steps are to mobilise. We need every single member visible and unified,” says OneBGS, the Bethesda Game Studios union.

The protests highlight growing frustration among game developers as the industry continues to undergo major restructuring following years of aggressive expansion, acquisitions and investment changes.

Bethesda union representatives claim hundreds of employees across Bethesda and ZeniMax studios have been impacted by the latest cuts, affecting teams responsible for some of the company’s biggest franchises, including The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Doom. The total includes 96 people at Id Software, 40 remote workers at BGS Dallas, 22 at BGS Austin, 213 at ZeniMax Online Studios in Maryland, and 166 at ZeniMax Media.

The union is calling on Microsoft to negotiate over issues including severance arrangements, healthcare support, internal transfers and future employment opportunities for affected staff.

The dispute comes as Microsoft continues efforts to streamline its gaming business following its acquisition of ZeniMax Media and Activision Blizzard, with the company reassessing costs across its global Xbox operations.

While Microsoft has positioned the restructuring as necessary to align its resources with its future priorities, employee groups argue repeated workforce reductions risk damaging studio expertise, in turn slowing development pipelines and undermining confidence among teams.

These latest layoffs are part of a wider pattern of instability across the global gaming sector, with major publishers reducing employee numbers after a period of rapid growth and increased game development spending.

The Bethesda protests represent another challenge for Microsoft as it attempts to strengthen Xbox’s position in today’s market while managing expectations from employees, consumers and investors.

With unions becoming increasingly active across the gaming sector, the response to the Xbox layoffs could influence how technology companies approach the restructuring of their workforces in the future.