id Software director Hugo Martin pushes back on claims the studio was gutted by Xbox layoffs

id Software creative director Hugo Martin has gone on record to deny reports that the studio was devastated by the recent Xbox layoffs, calling claims it has been "nerfed into the ground and gutted" flatly untrue. He made the comments during a Slayers Club Live stream playthrough of the Doom: The Dark Ages DLC, Revelations.

Martin said the studio is now roughly the same size it was when it made Doom 2016, and pushed back on fears about the idTech engine's future. "We have idTech engineers both in Frankfurt and at MachineGames. We collaborate quite a bit. The idTech is there, the Doom team is here, and we're excited to share with you guys more of what we're working on in the future when it is appropriate and approved." He also said Doom: The Dark Ages is performing well commercially, describing it as meeting or exceeding its forecast. A WARN notice filed in Texas confirmed 96 workers were laid off in Richardson — id Software's home — with another 40 remote roles cut. Those cuts are estimated to have affected roughly half the studio's staff, as part of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's broader reset of Microsoft's gaming business, which has already seen 1,600 jobs go with another 1,600 planned before the end of the financial year. An Aftermath report noted that id's Frankfurt office was also cut in half, dropping from 12 employees to six, though Xbox confirmed to IGN that "dozens of people" are still working on idTech across multiple locations.

id Software had already issued a statement before Martin's livestream comments, making the same comparison to its Doom 2016-era headcount and insisting it remains capable of making great games. The studio co-founders John Romero and John Carmack both weighed in publicly — Romero offered support to affected staff and called for the studio's legacy to be preserved. Dozens of laid-off workers also attended a "Save our Devs" rally outside id Software's Richardson office, organized by the Communications Workers of America union, which is currently negotiating an exit agreement with Microsoft.

Martin's reassurances landed with mixed reactions. His comment that "what matters the most is that the games are good" drew criticism from some observers who felt it glossed over the human cost of the cuts. The studio has promised to reveal what it's working on next when the time is right, but for now the true scale of the damage to id Software's long-term capacity remains an open question.