Xbox gutted id Software — two-thirds of the DOOM studio is gone
Microsoft has cut 136 people from id Software — the studio behind DOOM, Wolfenstein, and Quake — as part of its broader 3,200-person Xbox restructuring. That's roughly two-thirds of a team that numbered around 185, per a Texas WARN filing. The cuts landed one day before the studio shipped its Revelations DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages, triggering a wave of industry anger over the timing.
The scale of the damage
The layoffs hit the studio's technical core hardest. Most of the programmers responsible for id Tech — one of the most respected game engines in the industry, originally built by id co-founder John Carmack — have been let go. According to VGC, veteran programmer Dustin Land confirmed the entire visual effects team was dissolved, leaving just a handful of artists with no leads. Houdini simulation specialists are also out.
Land's reaction was blunt: "Well done, Microsoft. Nothing says business success like destroying a team, relegating them to support studio status, and throwing away massive technological achievements."
The 96 office roles and 40 remote positions cut represent the kind of institutional knowledge that takes years to build. id Tech 8 — used across DOOM, Wolfenstein, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — powered some of the most technically demanding games of this generation.
What happens to DOOM now
GamesBeat reports that the studio had multiple original projects in development or pitched before the cuts. These included a John Wick-style action game codenamed Fury, a cooperative DOOM title, a Western robot survival game called Ironwood, and even an internal pitch for a Perfect Dark remake — meant to replace the cancelled version from the now-closed The Initiative studio.
None of those projects will happen now. Microsoft says id Tech will remain part of Xbox's plans going forward, per This Week in Videogames, but with the engine team largely gone, that commitment is hard to square with reality. Meanwhile, 343 Industries has already moved Halo to Unreal Engine, and the same consolidation pressure may be coming for id Tech.
The commercial picture is complicated too. DOOM: The Dark Ages launched day one on Game Pass — a move that reportedly hurt direct sales and may have factored into Microsoft's decision to downsize the studio that made it. Whether Revelations DLC is the franchise's last hurrah or a pause remains an open question.
