id Software Reportedly Lost Around 50 of Its Staff and Might Be “Dead” Soon, According to Duke Nukem 3D Creator

Active discussions about the layoffs within Xbox carried out by Microsoft on Monday, July 6, continue among the gaming community. At the same time, new details are emerging about the damage inflicted on various gaming studios. It turns out that the impact on one of the most well-known gaming divisions was almost catastrophic.

We're talking about id Software, the developer behind legendary franchises like Doom and Quake. As reported by Game Developer, the studio lost about 50% of its staff during the recent layoffs at Xbox, including nearly all of its programmers. Michael Maynard, who worked at id Software for 21 years and was also among those who left the company, shared more detailed information on his LinkedIn profile.You can check out the message from his post below:

“Big day today at Id Software! We produced arguably THE BEST first person action games, in the entire industry. DOOM, DOOM:Eternal, DOOM: The Dark Ages. The quinticential modern trilogy of first person action!

Yet today, Microsoft/XBOX decided half the team was no longer needed and should be let go; despite all the amazing work and effort from every designer, programmer, artist, audio specialist, level designer, fx, tech design, and on and on and on.

Yes, I was part of the team (roughly 50% of the company) that was let go today. (I was there for OVER 20 years! RAGE through DOOM: Dark Ages) Sad but, I've been doing this (video games) for over 40 years so, not a huge surprise to me. Just really sad that this is how Id Software, the PIONEER/INNOVATOR of FPS action games is relegated to just another "reorganization" of assets.”

Meanwhile, George Broussard, one of Duke Nukem 3D's creators, shared additional information about the layoffs at id Software on his X page. He revealed that, following Microsoft's restructuring process, all Quake Champions testers, as well as artists, designers, and even members of the management team, had been cut. He went on to say that id Software might actually be dead, and you can check out more from his post below:

“I've seen comments like "the MS layoffs weren't so bad".

re: id software.

Reports are that 50% (95ish of 200) of the studio was laid off. Here are some quotes on other details:

“Tools, programming (except a couple), Quake Champions team, testing team. All gone.”

“Yeah seems like all they left was leadership and art/design. I think Xbox forgot quakecon is next month.”

It really does sound as if id is now a support team for Bethesda/others. Rip idTech, which was amazing. Maybe Machine Games will carry it on or maybe it will be dropped for future games?

But the read is that id is essentially dead. At least for the time being. Yes, the studio wasn't closed and half still have their jobs. That's great.”

Despite these rather disturbing reports, it was previously reported that, as part of its restructuring, Microsoft considers Bethesda, which owns id Software, and its franchises to be key priorities. It was mentioned that projects like Doom and Quake, as well as The Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout, and Wolfenstein, will continue to be developed and expanded. So, perhaps it's not worth making pessimistic predictions for now. You can also check out everything we know so far about Microsoft's layoffs at Xbox amid its ongoing restructuring process.

By the way, speaking of Doom, the latest expansion for Doom: The Dark Ages, titled Revelations, is now available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.