New details have emerged following Microsoft’s sweeping layoffs across its Xbox division, revealing that id Software–the legendary studio behind DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein–was hit much harder than initially reported.
According to updated information, 136 employees have been laid off from the studio. The cuts affected 96 on-site staff and 40 remote workers. Based on union estimates that id Software employed around 185 people before the restructuring, nearly two-thirds of the studio’s workforce has now been eliminated.
The layoffs reportedly had the greatest impact on the engineering teams responsible for developing id Tech, the studio’s proprietary game engine. Originally created by id Software co-founder John Carmack, id Tech has long been regarded as one of the industry’s most advanced game engines and has powered the studio’s titles for decades.
Former id Software programmer Dustin Land said the studio’s visual effects department was completely dismantled, leaving only a handful of artists without management. The layoffs also included specialists working with Houdini, the procedural content creation software widely used for visual effects and environment production.
Land strongly criticized Microsoft’s decision, arguing that the company had dismantled one of the industry’s strongest technology teams and effectively reduced id Software to a support studio.
According to GamesBeat, the layoffs came shortly after the completion of the successful Revelations expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages. At the time, the studio was also developing several new concepts, including a cooperative DOOM project, Ironwood–a robot-themed survival western, an action game inspired by the John Wick films, and id Software’s own vision for a Perfect Dark reboot intended to replace the version previously developed by the now-closed The Initiative.
Current reports indicate that none of those projects will move forward. The future of the DOOM franchise, as well as continued development of the id Tech engine, now appears uncertain.
The cuts at id Software are part of Microsoft’s broader restructuring of its Xbox gaming business, which has affected multiple first-party studios and resulted in the cancellation of several unannounced projects.
