Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, recently made a visit to the ZeniMax Media offices, where she was given an unmistakably pointed reception by the company’s employees. While Sharma had the opportunity to preview some footage of The Elder Scrolls VI, the visit was overshadowed by a strong protest concerning the recent wave of layoffs at Xbox.
Outside the offices, employees staged a striking demonstration featuring a large inflatable of Scabby the Rat, a well-known union symbol used globally to represent opposition to unfair labor practices, non-union contractors, and anti-union measures. The giant inflatable stood prominently among the crowd, visually underscoring the employees’ grievances.
Protest Highlights Scale of Layoffs
In addition to the inflatable, the protest included a somber display of red flags planted in the gardens surrounding the ZeniMax campus. Each flag represented a single employee who had been laid off during the most recent round of job cuts in July 2026. In total, 379 flags were positioned to mark the scale of the layoffs, with 213 employees losing their jobs at ZeniMax Online Studios and another 166 at ZeniMax Media.
Photographs capturing the scene, posted by Tom Warren of The Verge, reveal the vivid scale of the protest and the symbolic weight of the visual elements used by employees to communicate their displeasure directly to the Xbox leadership.
This demonstration clearly conveyed the workforce’s frustration over the layoffs, casting a shadow over Sharma’s visit despite the excitement surrounding the upcoming game preview. The protest served as a tangible reminder of the human cost behind corporate restructuring at one of the industry’s most prominent studios.