Doom: The Dark Ages developer id Software has reportedly been gutted during the latest round of mass layoffs at Xbox.
Multiple anonymous sources have told Game Developer that around 50 percent of employees at the Texas-based studio have been laid off. One person claimed that equates to over 90 redundancies.
Another source told Game Developer the studio’s QA department has been decimated by the cuts. One laid off worker posting publicly on Linkedin corroborated those claims and expressed anger at the studio being torn apart in service of “another ‘reorganisation’ of assets.”
It’s currently unclear how many of the 100-plus union members at id Software have been ousted.
The news comes just hours after Xbox confirmed it would be eliminating 3,200 roles across its video game division over the next fiscal year—starting with 1,600 cuts this week.
In an internal email obtained by IGN, Bethesda president Jill Braff said the company—which is a sibling studio of id Software and others under ZeniMax—is being restructured around its biggest franchises.
“To best position Bethesda for future growth, we are shifting from a planning model primarily centered on what’s next for each independent studio to one that focuses on our strongest franchises and determining the content roadmap that best serves our players and Bethesda as a whole,” reads the email.
A source familiar with the situation has corroborated the contents of Braff’s email and explained Bethesda will now be laser focused on Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. They said Bethesda intends to make it easier for its development teams to collaborate but noted it will not be shuttering any existing studios.
Game Developer has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
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