id Software director says the studio is fine — laid-off staff disagree
Xbox's sweeping July 2026 layoffs hit id Software — makers of DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein — harder than almost any other studio. Of 185 employees, 136 were let go, a 74% cut announced by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Now the studio's co-director and game director Hugo Martin is pushing back on what he calls an exaggerated narrative of collapse — and the people he laid off aren't buying it.
The claim
Martin made his case during a livestream playthrough of the Revelations DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages. His core argument: id Software's headcount now matches the roughly 200-person team that made DOOM (2016), so reports of the studio being "gutted" or reduced to 50 people are simply false. He also pointed to id Tech engineers based in Frankfurt and at MachineGames as evidence the engine team remains functional under a distributed development model.
> "We're the size we were when we made DOOM 2016 — and id Tech is very much alive and well," Martin said. "The engine isn't going anywhere, the DOOM team is here, and we'll be happy to show you more of what we're working on when the time is right."
He added that DOOM: The Dark Ages performed well commercially, and that its success "should help all employees, current and former" — without explaining what that means in practice.
The numbers don't quite match the story
The commercial picture is murkier than Martin suggests. Bethesda billed DOOM: The Dark Ages as the biggest launch in id Software history, citing 3 million players. But 80.lv reports analytics firm Alinea put actual sales at around 800,000 copies — the weakest of the modern DOOM trilogy. The gap exists because Game Pass subscribers count as "players" without a purchase, inflating the headline metric by an estimated 2.2 million.
Former employees are also unconvinced by Martin's staffing reassurance. Per GamesBeat, laid-off developers said publicly they are "not convinced there is a viable way forward," and that the studio lost the veteran expertise needed to ship another AAA title. The layoffs reportedly decimated id's AI and design departments, and only a handful of engine specialists survived the cuts — including the Director of Engine Technology, who was among those let go.
What comes next
Martin's optimism may be genuine, but it runs against the grain. Microsoft has been standardizing other studios — including the newly rebranded Halo Studios — on Unreal Engine, which raises real questions about the long-term value of proprietary id Tech. Rumors suggest a new DOOM entry is already in early development, but whether the remaining team can execute on that is precisely what former staff are questioning. Martin says he'll show more "when the time is right." For now, that's not much reassurance.
