Kotaku⁠73%

New The Elder Scrolls Online Changes Blamed On ‘Team Bandwidth’ Following Xbox Cuts ⁠75%

By Ethan Gach⁠65%

7/24/2026, 12:59:22 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Biased Writer Voice, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 22.2% saturation with 106 hits. Analysis detected 989 faulty-reasoning hits from 477 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 66.3% and a BS Rank of ⁠75% (5,676 of 21,886 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 74.10% of the article peer group.

Departing leadership at The Elder Scrolls Online maker ZeniMax Online has said it has “tremendous confidence” in the future of the MMO, but recent Xbox cuts are already showing up in ways fans can notice. 
In addition to the game's new seasonal roadmap already slipping, the development team is also making some changes to the game's microtransaction-based Web Crown Store. 
“To help manage workload, we have decided to remove the Web Crown Store from the official elderscrollsonline.com website,” reads a message this week from ESO community manager Kevin Gbolie. 
“The ability to acquire crowns via the website will remain and, of course, this does not affect the items that will be offered on the Crown Store in The Elder Scrolls Online, you will just need to login into the game to view and purchase the latest offerings.” 
The monthly Crown Store Showcase blog will also be changing. 
Instead of a detailed list of each new item with hi-res images, the post will become a brief bulleted list to save the team time. 
None of these are significant changes in and of themselves, but they come at a time when fans of the 12-year-old MMO are worried about its place in Xbox's evolving portfolio. 
Microsoft's gaming division cut 1,600 people earlier this month, including hundreds from ZeniMax's Maryland offices. 
Members of Elder Scrolls Online's leadership were among the layoffs, including studio head Jo Burba, executive producer Susan Kath, studio game director Rich Lambert, and production director Ala Diaz. 
“The roadmaps we previously shared will be shifting,” read an update from the team earlier this month. 
“To be blunt, the team responsible for the blog and those screenshots doesn’t have the capacity to provide those at the scale we could before,” Gbolie wrote on the ESO forum this week. 
“But we will provide what we can for now and adjust from there.” 
Some of the game's most loyal fans remain worried. 
“It is concerning. 
I’m tired of being called a doomer by just being realistic about this stuff, it’s not friggen good guys, wake the frick up I swear,” one player wrote. 
But ZeniMax Online has reportedly claimed quality content will continue and ESO still has a bright future ahead of it. 
“Some good news for a change,” super fan Baratron wrote on the game's Discord earlier this month. 
“This is important. 
According to both Jason Barnes (Associate Design Director) and Jessica Folsom (Associate Director of Community Management), Zenimax Online Studios is now at the same size as it was when they made both Wrothgar and Summerset. 
Which, as we know, are both highly acclaimed DLCs. 
So while the layoffs are extremely upsetting for everyone involved (of course including players), this is not necessarily the end of new content or the game going into maintenance mode.” 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 12.8%Ethan Gach: 4.0%Kotaku: 4.4%Confirmation Bias12.8%This article: 7.3%Ethan Gach: 2.3%Kotaku: 1.6%Anchoring Bias7.3%This article: 6.1%Ethan Gach: 3.3%Kotaku: 4.0%Availability Heuristic6.1%This article: 7.3%Ethan Gach: 1.4%Kotaku: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic7.3%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 1.6%Kotaku: 1.0%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 2.1%Kotaku: 1.7%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 9.2%Ethan Gach: 7.4%Kotaku: 5.8%Framing Effect9.2%This article: 10.1%Ethan Gach: 1.8%Kotaku: 1.1%Loss Aversion10.1%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 1.5%Kotaku: 1.1%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 6.3%Ethan Gach: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.4%Sunk Cost Effect6.3%This article: 20.5%Ethan Gach: 4.3%Kotaku: 2.9%Optimism Bias20.5%This article: 3.6%Ethan Gach: 4.2%Kotaku: 3.4%Pessimism Bias3.6%This article: 22.2%Ethan Gach: 12.9%Kotaku: 13.5%Negativity Bias22.2%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 1.8%Kotaku: 2.0%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 1.6%Kotaku: 1.5%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 2.0%Kotaku: 1.3%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.3%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 1.9%Ethan Gach: 5.1%Kotaku: 3.6%Halo Effect1.9%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.3%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 3.1%Ethan Gach: 2.6%Kotaku: 2.4%Recency Bias3.1%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.8%Kotaku: 0.6%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 5.9%Ethan Gach: 1.7%Kotaku: 1.3%Ad Hominem5.9%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.4%Kotaku: 0.6%Straw Man0.0%This article: 12.2%Ethan Gach: 3.2%Kotaku: 2.6%Appeal to Authority12.2%This article: 6.3%Ethan Gach: 2.2%Kotaku: 2.3%False Dilemma6.3%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 1.1%Kotaku: 1.0%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.4%Kotaku: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 8.4%Ethan Gach: 7.3%Kotaku: 9.4%Hasty Generalization8.4%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.5%Kotaku: 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.9%Kotaku: 1.1%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 7.1%Ethan Gach: 6.7%Kotaku: 5.8%Appeal to Emotion7.1%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.7%Kotaku: 0.9%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 5.9%Ethan Gach: 3.2%Kotaku: 2.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)5.9%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.1%Kotaku: 0.3%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.5%Kotaku: 0.7%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 7.3%Ethan Gach: 1.0%Kotaku: 0.5%Composition/Division7.3%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 2.1%Kotaku: 4.3%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 14.3%Ethan Gach: 2.3%Kotaku: 2.0%Ambiguity (Equivocation)14.3%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.3%Kotaku: 0.5%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.2%Kotaku: 0.2%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 10.9%Ethan Gach: 5.0%Kotaku: 2.8%Unattributed Quote10.9%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 2.1%Kotaku: 1.6%Quote-first Misdirection0.0%This article: 18.7%Ethan Gach: 13.3%Kotaku: 15.3%Biased Writer Voice18.7%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 2.0%Kotaku: 2.4%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.6%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 0.0%Kotaku: 0.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Ethan Gach: 2.5%Kotaku: 3.5%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

477 words analyzed.

Speakers

3speakers37%attributed speech299writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 13 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 35 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 0.0% coverageKevin Gbolie • 29 words • 0.0% coverageKevin Gbolie • 48 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 10 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 31 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 15 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 29 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 100.0% coverageKevin Gbolie • 33 words • 0.0% coverageKevin Gbolie • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 9 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 3 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 20 words • 0.0% coverageBaratron • 17 words • 0.0% coverageBaratron • 3 words • 0.0% coverageJason Barnes • 35 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 9 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Jason Barnes

100%flagged-word coverage
35 attributed words20% of attributed speech80% writer coverage
0%10.0%20.0%Unattributed Quote-17.4 ptsWriter: 17.4%Jason Barnes: 0.0%0.0%Biased Writer Voice-13.7 ptsWriter: 13.7%Jason Barnes: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.