id Software says “We’re doing great” despite losing half its staff in Xbox reset
Co‑studio director Marty Stratton insists the studio remains viable after cutting roughly 136 jobs.
Wow! The iconic Doom and Quake creator is still standing after a massive layoff wave.
Microsoft’s Xbox “reset” announced by CEO Asha Sharma earlier this year cut 3,200 jobs across the gaming division. id Software felt the sting most heavily, with around 136 employees—about half of its staff—being let go.
When asked about the fallout, co‑studio director Marty Stratton told reporters at a recent event (via IGN): “We’re doing great.” He acknowledged the cuts, saying “everybody knows we had about half of our studio exit as part of that,” but added that a “very deliberate effort” ensured the studio stayed “incredibly viable” in both game development and the technology department.
This isn’t the first time an id Software leader has pushed back against claims that the studio was “nerfed into the ground.” Co‑studio head Hugo Martin previously said the remaining team is “the size we were when we made Doom 2016, and id Tech is very much alive and well.”
Layoffs also hit the id Tech engine team, the backbone of the studio’s high‑performance, visually impressive games. Veteran programmer Chris Hays, who survived the cuts, warned that “it is hard to make a game that is triple‑A… with half the people. And by hard I mean impossible,” noting that “entire departments” and “entire disciplines” have disappeared.
Stratton did not directly address Hays’s remarks, but he did reveal that id Software is now “working more closely than ever” with MachineGames, the Swedish studio behind modern Wolfenstein titles and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. “We’ve always had a very close partnership with [MachineGames], but I think we’re at a point with technology development that both teams are incredibly talented… and we’re really on an amazing path that had started pre‑[layoffs],” he said.
He added, “We’d kicked this off earlier this year. We’re really excited about that. We’re both really really bullish on what we have ahead.”
The next id Software project remains undisclosed, while MachineGames hinted that work on a Wolfenstein sequel could be underway.
Despite the dramatic staff reduction, id Software’s leadership insists the studio is poised to continue delivering cutting‑edge games and technology.
