Xbox CEO Praises Elder Scrolls 6 Demo as Bethesda Workers Protest with Giant Rat
Asha Sharma posted about the RPG's 'incredible scale' while developers held a labor action outside the studio.
Conversation activity · last 6 hours peak 16/15m
Summary, timeline and people extracted by Claude from 42 items across 5 sources · 2h ago. Quotes are verbatim.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma viewed a live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls 6 and posted praise for its scale and story on social media. The timing coincided with Bethesda developers staging a protest outside the studio's office, marked by a giant inflatable rat — a traditional labor protest symbol. The coverage highlights the contrast between executive enthusiasm and worker discontent.
- Xbox CEO Asha Sharma viewed an Elder Scrolls 6 demo and praised its scale and story on social media
- The praise came as Bethesda developers staged a protest outside the studio with a giant inflatable rat, a traditional labor symbol
- Gaming community reactions were largely skeptical, dismissing the coverage as corporate PR and questioning executive credibility
- The incident highlights tension between corporate messaging and worker concerns at Microsoft-owned studios
How it unfolded
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Gaming outlet Aftermath published a story emphasizing that Sharma appeared not to notice or acknowledge the giant rat protest outside Bethesda's office while posting her praise.
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Commenters dismissed the story as corporate PR, criticized IGN's coverage as promotional content, and noted the irony of executive praise during a worker protest. Some questioned Sharma's gaming credibility.
“IGN reports on Promotional Tweet from sham CEO hired to disembowel the company, Social media fart becomes shareable post for reddit discussion despite containing no caloric value”
LawrenceBrolivier · r/gaming ↗ -
Gaming outlets began covering Sharma's comments, with some noting the timing coincided with Bethesda developers protesting outside the studio with a giant inflatable rat — a traditional labor protest symbol.
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Xbox CEO Asha Sharma watched a live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls 6 and posted on social media about the game's scale and story. She also vaguely teased the game's subtitle.
What people are saying verbatim
“The Scale And Granduer Are Incredible. The Story is Even Greater”
Asha Sharma, Xbox CEO · social media via IGN ↗ · Aug 10
“IGN reports on Promotional Tweet from sham CEO hired to disembowel the company, Social media fart becomes shareable post for reddit discussion despite containing no caloric value”
LawrenceBrolivier, Reddit commenter · Reddit ↗ · Aug 10
“She knows nothing about games so even putting aside the fact that she's the boss of the company making it, I still wouldn't trust her to know wtf she's talking about here.”
Iggy_Slayer, Reddit commenter · Reddit ↗ · Aug 10
“Maybe show us the playthrough you watched? Nobody believes what some chief executives are going to say about the IP they are in charge with. So pointless.”
Ghostfistkilla, Reddit commenter · Reddit ↗ · Aug 10
“I really hope Xbox and the new ceo have recognized what exactly made starfield bad, and are forcing Bethesda to take extra time to work on optimizing and bug fixing. That's pure copium though.”
CuddleWings, Reddit commenter · Reddit ↗ · Aug 10
“It's funny looking at all those comments realising that the tune is going to be completely different once Todd does his usual spectacle showcase of the game filled with insane promises and overhyping”
maxlaav, Reddit commenter · Reddit ↗ · Aug 10
The conversation positions from the crowd, verbatim
The conversation centers on skepticism toward corporate promotional messaging and concern about Bethesda's track record after Starfield. Commenters largely dismiss the CEO's praise as empty PR, with particular focus on the irony of executive enthusiasm during a labor protest.
The dispute Whether Bethesda deserves any trust after Starfield — critics see a pattern of broken promises while defenders argue Elder Scrolls returns to the studio's proven formula.
This is meaningless corporate PR that should be ignored, especially given the CEO's lack of gaming credibility and the ongoing worker protest.
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“IGN reports on Promotional Tweet from sham CEO hired to disembowel the company, Social media fart becomes shareable post for reddit discussion despite containing no caloric value”
LawrenceBrolivier · Reddit ↗ -
“She knows nothing about games so even putting aside the fact that she's the boss of the company making it, I still wouldn't trust her to know wtf she's talking about here.”
Iggy_Slayer · Reddit ↗ -
“Maybe show us the playthrough you watched? Nobody believes what some chief executives are going to say about the IP they are in charge with. So pointless.”
Ghostfistkilla · Reddit ↗
Bethesda will repeat the Starfield mistakes — overpromise, underdeliver, and ship a buggy product driven by corporate pressure.
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“I really hope Xbox and the new ceo have recognized what exactly made starfield bad, and are forcing Bethesda to take extra time to work on optimizing and bug fixing. That's pure copium though. Late stage capitalism says 'No. You get buggy…”
CuddleWings · Reddit ↗ -
“It's funny looking at all those comments realising that the tune is going to be completely different once Todd does his usual spectacle showcase of the game filled with insane promises and overhyping and all you guys are going to eat it up…”
maxlaav · Reddit ↗ -
“They also said that Starfield was 'the most important RPG ever made'... spoiler alert ...it was not.”
Hot-Cause-481 · Reddit ↗
Elder Scrolls 6 will likely be fine because it returns to Bethesda's core strength of focused regional exploration, unlike Starfield's procedural generation.
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“starfield was bad mostly bad cause the removed the exploration. which was the thing they were good at. obviously tes6 will not feature proceduraly generated poi's since it just takes place in one region”
hovsep56 · Reddit ↗ -
“Yeah the negativity is a little overkill. People seem to really want to believe ESVI hasn't even been started. It's probably 2 years away, so of course there is a playable build and the main story is locked.”
Senn-66 · Reddit ↗
- What are the Bethesda workers protesting about?
- Will Xbox actually show the demo footage publicly?
- What is the actual subtitle Sharma teased?
Voices from the web unedited
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IGN reports on Promotional Tweet from sham CEO hired to disembowel the company, Social media fart becomes shareable post for reddit discussion despite containing no caloric value 08/11/2026 A six-day old account on Reddit decided to share to r/gaming a non-story from a completely bankrupt promotional whitewashing outlet, transforming a promotional…
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The Xbox boss praising a developer's game years before it's planned for release is a "Hey, I've seen this one" occurrence, but doing it while dodging a giant Scabby is next-level stuff. https:// kotaku.com/xbox-boss-asha-shar ma-says-elder-scrolls-vi-looks-great-so-stop-talking-about-that-giant-rat-outside-bethesdas-office-2000723542
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every game other than starfield has been 3-4 years. if it comes out in 2027 it is likely not going to be small, if it comes out in 2028 it likely is going to be considerably larger than their normal games (other than starfield, assuming they do their old one map formula).
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Aftermath just posted: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Gushes About Elder Scrolls VI, Does Not Seem To Notice Giant Rat On Bethesda Office Lawn Please clap (and don't talk about layoffs) https:// aftermath.site/xbox-asha-sharm a-elder-scrolls-vi-bethesda-giant-rat/ # gamingNews # Aftermath
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It's funny looking at all those comments realising that the tune is going to be completely different once Todd does his usual spectacle showcase of the game filled with insane promises and overhyping and all you guys are going to eat it up per usual
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Xbox CEO Asha Sharma gushes about Elder Scrolls VI, does not seem to notice giant rat on Bethesda office lawn
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I really hope Xbox and the new ceo have recognized what exactly made starfield bad, and are forcing Bethesda to take extra time to work on optimizing and bug fixing. That’s pure copium though. Late stage capitalism says “No. You get buggy trash.”
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There is a difference between thousands of planets to craft vs a continent though. A continent for which they have had the blueprints for for decades now. And Morrowind was smaller because of technical limitations.
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Yeah the negativity is a little overkill. People seem to really want to believe ESVI hasn’t even been started. It’s probably 2 years away, so of course there is a playable build and the main story is locked.
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starfield was bad mostly bad cause the removed the exploration. which was the thing they were good at. obviously tes6 will not feature proceduraly generated poi's since it just takes place in one region