I interacted with devs at several Zenimax studios and watching all the employees in other countries take long vacations, generous parental leave, etc. really threw into sharp relief how fucked the USA is. And Zenimax USA benefits were considered good by USA standards, but they were so obviously nothing compared to countries with worker protection enshrined in law. Surprise, despite all that time off, many of those international employees were still extremely valuable.

Across foreign and domestic employees, Id Software in particular seemed lean, talented, and just generally switched on. One of the best experiences of my career. Arkane Lyon, too. I was dumbfounded at the layoffs. It’s like Microsoft excised the most creative and productive parts of the company on purpose.