id Software creative director Hugo Martin has spoken out about the Xbox layoffs that have hit the legendary Doom developer, emphasizing that the company is still alive.
A WARN notice filed last week in Texas and reported by Game Developer confirmed that 96 employees in Richardson, Texas, where id Software is based, were laid off and another 40 remote roles were eliminated. The cuts, which affected an estimated half of id Software’s employees, were part of new Xbox boss Asha Sharma’s “reboot” of Microsoft’s gaming business, which began with 1,600 employees losing their jobs. Another 1,600 will be laid off later in the current financial year. Four Xbox studios are already on the doorstep, with another one hot on their heels.
Last week, id Software issued a statement in response to the layoffs, saying the company is now at the same staffing levels as it was during the popular Doom reboot in 2016. It also insisted that it is still capable of making “great games” and rejected claims that virtually no one at the company is now working on id Tech, the game engine that the company and Bethesda-owned studio MachineGames use to develop their games. Xbox confirmed to IGN that there are “dozens of people working on id Tech in multiple locations” and that previous reports that there was only one person left in Texas were “inaccurate.”
Kotaku first reported the layoffs during a livestream playthrough of Doom: The Dark Ages DLC, Revelations, pushing back against reports of the studio’s demise and promising to announce what the studio is working on next in due course.
“There have been reports that we’ve been ‘run into the ground’ and ‘eviscerated’ and we have 50 people, and that’s not true,” Martin said. “We are at the size we were when we made Doom 2016, and id Tech is very much alive and well. You have to understand, we have id Tech engineers both in Frankfurt and at MachineGames.
Martin then suggested that Doom: The Dark Ages, the prequel to 2016’s Doom and 2020’s Doom Eternal, is meeting commercial expectations.
“Look, the fact that we’ve made a game that people like and that’s critically and commercially successful – like I said, it’s doing very well in terms of forecast and stuff – that’s good for everyone, for the people in the studio, for the people that we unfortunately had to say goodbye to. I think that helps everyone and we really appreciate your support,” he said.
“But the most important thing is that the games are good and I’m so glad that people, I don’t know… It’s just a good thing for everyone and I know it will help.”
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Martin’s comments come as a protest by laid-off employees outside Bethesda’s offices, including from id Software. According to Kera News, dozens of workers took part in a “Save Our Developers” rally outside id Software’s Richardson office building on Wednesday, part of an event organized in several cities across the country and in Canada by workers represented by the Communications Workers of America union. The CWA is currently negotiating an exit agreement with Microsoft.
id Software co-founders John Romero and John Carmack have both issued statements regarding the layoffs at the studio. John Romero took to social media to offer his support to affected id Software employees and call for preserving the studio’s recent legacy. “Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein are not easy names, especially in today’s industry,” he said. “The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what these worlds mean to people.”
Carmack, however, expressed sadness but not “anger or outrage” and questioned whether id Software’s games had sold well enough to prevent the layoffs.
What will id Software do next? According to GamesBeat, id Software was working on new game ideas, such as an original John Wick-style IP, a new Perfect Dark game, and a multiplayer/co-op Doom game, before the layoffs occurred. Tom Warren of The Verge said that id Software is currently working on a new Doom game.
Wesley is Director of News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
https://www.ign.com/articles/id-software-creative-director-says-claims-the-doom-developer-was-nerfed-into-the-ground-by-xbox-layoffs-are-untrue
