Doom Developer id Software Is Reportedly Losing Half Its Staff
2 65Doom developer id Software is reportedly laying off about half its staff as part of Microsoft's broader Xbox cuts. The reported layoffs potentially affects around 90 employees. Engadget reports: While neither Microsoft nor id Software have formally acknowledged the layoffs, one former member of the studio's staff, Michael Maynard, has echoed the 50 percent figure on LinkedIn. According to at least one of Game Developer's sources, that could translate to around 90 job cuts, though it's so far unclear what departments at id Software have been hit hardest.
[...] Bloomberg reported yesterday that as part of the "reset" at Xbox, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of id Software, will be focusing on its biggest franchises -- like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein and Doom -- going forward. It's possible that motivated the cuts to id Software, but the developer at least outwardly appears to be already heavily focused on Doom. The studio launched Doom: The Dark Ages in 2025 and an expansion to the game on July 7, 2026. Whatever the reason, the cuts at Xbox aren't over: While Microsoft eliminated 1,600 roles alongside the announcement that Xbox is restructuring, it still plans to lay off another 1,600 employees over the coming months.
2 comments
On the plus side (Score: 5, Insightful)
by ebunga ( 95613 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @07:23PM (#66227570)
This will free up more resources so they can completely destroy the rest of their businesses.
A watershed moment (Score: 5, Insightful)
by hutkept ( 10503251 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2026 @07:51PM (#66227590)
Doom was amazing tech, way ahead of its time, and while it changed hands, and staffing, since then, the quality of their engine and team was always a high standard. Seeing it gutted to claw back money to spend elsewhere makes me feel that AI is taking away from, rather than adding, to the awesomeness that was hacking crazy irreverent new games and software. If AI is so powerful an amplifier, then why can't some of the most creative and hard working content creating teams be empowered and amplified by it? It seems that computing revolutions in the past were additive, PC, internet, mobile, cloud, but now AI is one of the most destructive I have ever seen.