The Xbox layoff storm continues to spread, and now even the legendary FPS studio id Software is deeply involved. The latest news points out that up to 66% of the core development team of the “DOOM” series has been laid off, and a large number of senior developers with decades of experience have left. Many players are worried whether the technology and experience that have accompanied the growth of “DOOM” will also disappear with it.
Legendary Studio is losing a lot of blood, and veterans are leaving one after another!
According to foreign media reports and former employees, this wave of layoffs involves about 136 id Software employees. If calculated based on the past team size of about 185 people, it is equivalent to more than two-thirds of the workforce being affected. Many resigned developers even bluntly said that the most worrying thing now is not the number of people, but the accumulated decades of engine development knowledge and technology inheritance, which may be difficult to get back. Some former employees even expressed pessimism that it is difficult to imagine that id Software can continue to create the next work with the id Tech engine in the future, believing that the layoffs will have a far more serious impact on the studio than outsiders imagine.
id Software urgently puts out the fire
However, in the face of external doubts, id Software co-director Hugo Martin later publicly clarified that the rumors that “the studio has been cut down to only about 50 people” and “has been hollowed out” are not correct. He emphasized that the current team size is roughly similar to that of the development of “DOOM” (2016). The id Tech engine team continues to operate, and is also supported by engineers from Frankfurt and MachineGames, so the studio still has the ability to develop future works.
It’s just the official statement that hasn’t completely quelled players’ concerns. After all, when a studio that specializes in technology loses a large number of senior talents at once, the biggest concern for the outside world is never whether the next game can be made, but how much experience is left with the experience that has accompanied “DOOM” for more than 30 years.