id Software Veteran Confirms Worst Case Scenario for DOOM and Quake Dev

Yesterday came the news that XBOX had begun the process of layoffs.

1,600 employees were let go across the company yesterday, and that's just the beginning. Another 1,600 layoffs are expected over the course of the next 12 months.

It's all part of what new CEO Asha Sharma is calling a much-needed reset at the company. Her predecessor, Phil Spencer, spent much of his tenure acquiring studios, including id Software. Sharma has stressed that "while those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected." She stressed that they "must reset XBOX."

Some studios, such as Compulsion Games (South of Midnight) and Double Fine (Psychonauts, Kiln), were able to go independent. Others, such as Ninja Theory (Hellblade) and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3), are being sold to new ownership. It's expected that the same will happen with Arkane Studios (Marvel's Blade) in the future.

Not everyone has been so lucky, though, and one of the studios that seems to have been hit the hardest is the most puzzling.

id Software's Layoffs Are Incredibly Frustrating

After the initial announcement, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported on Bluesky that id Software, who is releasing Doom: The Dark Ages DLC this week, and ZeniMax Online Studios are suffering from "a significant number" of layoffs.

Roughly 50% of the company at id Software was let go, including Michael Maynard, who worked for the studio for the past two decades. To put things bluntly, he is not happy. "We produced arguably THE BEST (in the entire industry) first person action games," he states before adding that the team "created arguably THE BEST first person engine technology in the industry." That's where the happy story ends, though.

Yet today, Microsoft/XBOX decided half the team was deemed USELESS and needed to be let go; despite all the amazing work and effort from every designer, programmer, artist, audio specialist, level designer, fx, tech design, and on and on and on.

Maynard is right. Doom 2016 reinvigorated the FPS genre, combining old-school game philosophy, modern-day gameplay and visuals, and fast-paced action combat that has only aged like fine wine. The backbone of that game, as well as the rest of the modern Doom trilogy, is id Tech, id Software's game engine that is, without a doubt, in a league of its own.

So, with that being said, why would XBOX lay off the people behind it? If you ask me, it's a pretty unreal decision, but if you think hard enough, the answer is pretty obvious.

It's Speculated That Unreal Engine Will be Widely Adopted by XBOX Studios

With id's layoffs specifically targeting programmers, you can't help but wonder if there's a decision, moving forward, to shift away from id Tech and towards Unreal Engine.

This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a studio movie away from what they've used in the past and towards Unreal. After utilizing Frostbite over their recent games, BioWare is shifting to Unreal for the next Mass Effect game. It's the same engine that BioWare used for the original Mass Effect trilogy. They then shifted to Frostbite for games such as Dragon Age: Inquisition, which resulted in countless problems.

Given how widely adopted Unreal is across the industry, this makes sense for cases like BioWare shifting away from Frostbite. However, this isn't the same scenario. id Tech works extraordinarily well for the games id Software is making. Given the fact that XBOX leadership wants studios to focus on what they're known for, even calling out franchises like Quake, you'd imagine that you'd want the team making the first new proper Quake game in two decades to utilize an engine they're familiar with.

Then again, if the goal of resetting XBOX is to increase profits, then yeah, I guess this decision makes sense.

DOOM: The Dark Ages

Released May 15, 2025

ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

Publisher(s) Bethesda Softworks