The house that built DOOM and Quake has been gutted.
In a brutal wave of restructuring that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma claims will eliminate 3,200 jobs—roughly 20% of Microsoft’s gaming workforce—over the next fiscal year, id Software has suffered a catastrophic bloodletting. According to a recently filed Texas WARN notice, 136 workers have been laid off from the legendary developer. That includes 96 developers at their Richardson headquarters and 40 remote roles. Across the Atlantic, the studio’s Frankfurt office reportedly lost six of its twelve employees.
For a studio that boasted a total headcount of around 185 just a few years ago, the math is grim. Over half the company is gone.
Yet, if you look at the studio’s official public channels, it’s business as usual.
In a statement pushed out to social media amidst a wave of industry panic, id Software went on the defensive: “While our studio was impacted, those changes were spread across teams. We still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we’re known for.” The unsigned statement added a detail meant to reassure fans, claiming the team today is “about the same size we were when making DOOM (2016).”
But inside the trenches, former developers are painting a much darker picture of a studio systematically dismantled.
“Nuking a Team Into the Dirt”
The timing of the cuts was remarkably callous, landing exactly one day before the release of a highly anticipated expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages.
Todd Boyce, a former VFX artist at id, took to LinkedIn to blast the decision. “What a complete disregard for people who spent months working unpaid overtime to make the DLC,” Boyce wrote, calling the move an example of “insanity and despicable corporate greed.”
The loss of institutional knowledge appears staggering. Derek Best, former Principal VFX Artist, revealed that the VFX team was slashed down to a single artist with no lead or producer. Even the engine programmer responsible for massive gains in their proprietary particle editor was let go.
“Collectively decades of knowledge was wiped out of the studio,” Best stated. “Nothing says business success like nuking a team into the dirt and relegating them to support studio size while also throwing out massive technological achievements.”
The severity of the cuts has cast a long, uncomfortable shadow over the future of id Tech—the proprietary, highly optimized engine that powers Bethesda’s most kinetic shooters. With so many specialized engineers shown the door, including developers who specifically mastered Houdini for procedural modeling, rumors immediately began swirling that Xbox would eventually force id Software to abandon its historic tech and pivot to Epic’s Unreal Engine.
Microsoft, for its part, swiftly denied the death of id Tech. An Xbox spokesperson issued a firm pushback: “There are dozens of people working on id Tech across multiple locations. Reports that there’s only one person left in Texas are inaccurate.”
The 2016 Benchmark vs. 2026 Reality
Id Software’s claim that they are back to their 2016 headcount is meant to project stability, but in the modern AAA landscape, it’s actually a red flag. Game development in 2026 requires vastly more manpower, time, and fidelity than it did a decade ago. Scaling backward while expected to produce next-generation, blockbuster shooters is a brutal proposition.
The broader strategy behind this gutting was outlined in an internal email from Bethesda Softworks CEO Jill Braff. According to leaked communications, Bethesda is shifting away from independent studio roadmaps to a consolidated model focused entirely on their biggest cash cows: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, and Quake.
For id Software, this means survival under the Microsoft umbrella equates to becoming a highly restricted franchise factory. Ambitious, experimental pitches—including reported attempts to revive Perfect Dark or create a John Wick-style shooter—were allegedly rejected by Xbox leadership in the months leading up to the layoffs.
Even id Software co-founder John Carmack couldn’t hide his disappointment. Reflecting on the decimation of the studio he helped build, Carmack posted a sobering thought: “My ‘Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand’ statement isn’t aging well.”
Sources Quoted:
- Game Developer: Texas WARN notice data (136 layoffs) and Jill Braff’s internal email regarding Bethesda’s restructuring.
- VGC / TechPowerUp: LinkedIn quotes from former id Software developers Derek Best and Todd Boyce regarding the loss of the VFX team and unpaid overtime crunch.
- GamesIndustry.biz / PC Gamer: Statements from id Software’s official X account and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s 3,200 job cut announcement.
- Aftermath: Data on the Frankfurt office layoffs and Microsoft’s statement denying the death of the id Tech engine.
- Eurogamer: Quote from John Carmack regarding Microsoft’s stewardship.
Leo Falsafi is a digital marketing veteran and senior journalist at Virlan.co, where he covers the intersection of digital marketing, gaming, and breaking US trending news. With nearly two decades of hands-on experience in SEO and digital strategy, Leo has consulted for and scaled hundreds of companies. His deep industry roots allow him to deliver sharp, fact-checked insights and analysis on the trends shaping today’s digital landscape.
