Doom studio id Software has lost around half its staff during Xbox’s ongoing restructuring, but co-director Marty Stratton insists the developer remains in a strong position.
id Software co-director Marty Stratton has insisted the studio is “doing great” despite around half of its workforce being laid off during Microsoft’s sweeping Xbox restructuring.
The cuts came just 24 hours before the launch of Doom: The Dark Ages’ major expansion, raising concerns about the future of the studio behind one of gaming’s most iconic first-person shooter franchises.
Speaking to media at a recent event, Stratton acknowledged the scale of the layoffs but insisted Microsoft had taken steps to ensure id Software remained capable of developing games and supporting its technology.
According to IGN, he said: “We’re doing great. Not to handwave the [layoffs] away…everybody knows we had about half of our studio exit as part of that. But there was a very deliberate effort to make sure that we were incredibly viable coming out of that across everything we do, across game development and technology department.”
One of the biggest concerns surrounding the cuts has been the future of id Tech, the studio’s proprietary engine that has powered its acclaimed shooters for years.
Veteran programmer Chris Hays previously warned that creating another AAA game with half the staff would be effectively impossible.
He said in August: “It is hard to make a game that is AAA that’s like we’ve done before with half the people.
“And by hard I mean impossible.”
However, id Software has pushed back against concerns about its ability to continue developing its technology, with Stratton previously suggesting the studio’s staffing levels were comparable to those it had when Doom launched in 2016.
The developer is also working more closely with MachineGames, which uses a separate branch of id Tech and is developing the unannounced Wolfenstein 3.
Stratton said: “We’re working more closely with MachineGames than ever. We’ve always had a very close partnership with them, but I think we’re at a point with technology development that both teams are incredibly talented and have incredibly talented engineers and we’re really on an amazing path that had started pre-[layoffs].”
Stratton added that both teams were “really excited” about their future plans and “really, really bullish” on what lies ahead.
However, Microsoft’s Xbox restructuring is not yet finished, with further job cuts reportedly expected in November and January.
For now, id Software appears determined to reassure fans that Doom’s future remains secure, despite the dramatic reduction in its workforce.
Doom director claims ‘we’re doing great’ despite job cuts
