Former VFX artist Derek Best, who worked on all three modern DOOM games, posted an emotional message on LinkedIn, calling what happened "shockingly brutal."
According to him, the studio has practically lost the expertise accumulated over decades. Best claims that the VFX team was reduced to a single artist, without a lead or producer. In addition, the engine engineer responsible for developing tools for effects creation and the particle editor was fired.
He also stated that id Software lost all specialists who worked with Houdini for procedural modeling and cached animation. According to the developer, this means that many technologies and developments used in the creation of DOOM: The Dark Ages no longer have anyone to develop them.
In conclusion, Best sharply criticized Microsoft's management, stating that the studio was "wiped off the face of the earth" and effectively turned into a team capable only of supporting other projects.
In a separate publication, he suggested that the future of id Software might involve abandoning its proprietary idTech engine in favor of Unreal Engine. According to him, the team responsible for engine development was particularly affected, which may indicate a change in the company's strategy.
Another studio employee, VFX artist Todd Boyce, also criticized the management for the timing of the layoffs. He noted that the cuts occurred just one day before the release of a major expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages, which, according to him, developers had been working on for months with overtime.
Boyce called what happened a manifestation of corporate greed and stated that such an attitude is disrespectful both to the people who put effort into creating the expansion and to the idTech engine, which for many years was considered a benchmark for performance in the industry.
At the moment, it is unknown whether the layoffs affected id Software's German division in Frankfurt, which is responsible for developing idTech technology. Microsoft has not yet commented on the statements of former employees or disclosed further plans for the studio.