Among the many studios affected by Microsoft’s layoffs this week is id Software, the legendary company that built this week Doom And QuakeHe was hit particularly hard. More than 90 workers lost their jobs, effectively sawing many teams in half. Today, id Software released a statement insisting that the company still has the capacity to develop games – the same day that layoffs occurred at its Frankfurt office.
Current and former id Software employees informed Aftermath about layoffs at the Frankfurt office, saying that six of 12 id employees were let go, which is consistent with what happened to the rest of id earlier this week. The layoffs also affected Bethesda employees who worked in the same office.
Even before the layoffs, id’s Frankfurt operation was small, comprising a dozen employees in various departments such as art and programming, with most working on id’s engine team. The remaining six, current and former employees, worked on the engine, Aftermath said. After layoffs, Frankfurt is now home to most of id Tech’s engineers, with two others living in Dallas. However, other Zenimax studios are also working on the id Tech engine.
The id Tech engine, considered by many to be an optimization miracle, has been a cause for concern following recent layoffs. Some employees have alleged that Microsoft squandered, effectively destroying, crucial institutional knowledge about its basic functions. In a statement posted on Twitter today, id disputed this characterization of events:
Although our studio was impacted, these changes were distributed across all teams. We still have the crew we need to create the games and technology we are known for. The team is now about the same size as when it was founded DOOM (2016). We’ve always had a flat studio where everyone is a doer, and we’ll stay true to that philosophy going forward.
We are focused on supporting each other and the affected team members. We will continue to create the great games and technology that have defined us over the last 35 years, and we look forward to seeing you at QuakeCon this August.
In a statement to Kotaku earlier this week, Microsoft claimed that the id Tech engine in particular was not in danger of extinction: “There are dozens of people working on id Tech across multiple locations,” an Xbox spokesperson said. “Reports that there is only one person left in Texas are inaccurate.” (A Microsoft spokesperson sent the same statement to Aftermath today after a request for comment.)
Frankfurt was one of these locations, and now the team has been reduced in size. Ex-id employees have now taken to sites like LinkedIn to express their fear and confusion about what’s next for the studio that popularized the first-person shooter genre – especially after layoffs occurred the same week as the release Doom DLC that required a “significant” crisis. “Nothing says business success like driving a team into the dirt and relegating them to the size of a studio while simultaneously sacrificing massive technological achievements,” someone said earlier this week.
Next week, CWA, the union that helped organize many studios at Microsoft – including id – is hosting a series of Save Our Devs demonstrations outside the offices of id Software, Bethesda and Obsidian. Everyone is welcome to attend and show their support.
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“Nothing says business success like driving a team into the dirt and reducing them to the size of a studio while throwing away massive technological advances.”
https://aftermath.site/xbox-layoffs-id-software-frankfurt-doom/
