Former Naughty Dog employee Quentin Cobb recently moved over to the Microsoft-owned company ZeniMax Online. He will be working on a brand-new IP as a Senior Designer, hinting at an upcoming major project for the development studio.
ZeniMax Online is a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, which also owns Bethesda Game Studios - responsible for popular action-adventure titles like the Elder Scrolls series, the Fallout series, and the upcoming Starfield. As a sister studio, ZeniMax Online heads projects like the online MMORPGs Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76, as well as the canceled Commander Keen mobile game. Following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media, it looks like the developers have big plans in store for upcoming titles.
After the $7.5 billion purchase of ZeniMax, one of the first steps taken by the studios for future projects the hiring of Cobb, known for his work with Naughty Dog as a Game Designer on projects like Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us for dialogue scripting, puzzle scripting, animal placement scripting, and general bug fixing. He also worked as a Senior Game Designer under Sony for two years before being picked up by ZeniMax Online.
Cobb announced via Twitter that he has officially joined the team over at ZeniMax Online yesterday, and has formed the basis of a new satellite studio for the developer in San Diego, California along with other designers and developers Alex Sulman, John Bautista, Chris Kovach, and TJ Madigan.
This satellite studio is starting on a new AAA IP, according to Cobb. While he doesn’t go into detail or provide any hints as to what the upcoming IP entails, this is exciting news for fans of the Elder Scrolls Online creators. Confirming that it will be another AAA online game means it is bound to be big, though some fans are concerned that this means the end of new content for ESO.
“I want to thank everyone at ZeniMax for the incredibly warm welcome as I’m thrilled to join this team,” Cobb said on Twitter. “This is easily the most excited I’ve ever been to work on a project since I joined the industry back in 2009.” Considering the projects Cobb has worked on since 2009, his excitement likely means that the ZeniMax Online studio has big plans in store for this new IP.
Cobb also spread the word that ZeniMax Online is hiring for many positions across several locations, including Maryland, Austin, and San Diego, pointing to major strides being taken by Microsoft to compete with Sony on exclusive games.
