id Software employees criticize management's statements about the mild consequences of mass layoffs

Studio co-head Hugo Martin was not entirely honest when he said that things were not so bad.

Following id Software co-director Hugo Martin's recent statement that the studio was not "weakened and destroyed" as a result of the massive Xbox layoffs, current and former employees of the company anonymously spoke out with a different perspective.

As reported by Game Developer, several developers stated that they disagreed with Martin's assessment. According to one of them, many laid-off employees perceived these comments as a disregard for their contributions to the studio's games.

Developers also noted that comparing the current team size to the team that created DOOM (2016) should not be taken as a positive fact. According to them, the game's production was extremely difficult: the project was restarted multiple times, developed for about seven years, and involved massive reworks. Moreover, some employees who worked almost without rest at that time were also subsequently laid off.

One former employee recalled that in 2010–2011, id Software had already experienced a mass exodus of personnel, which put it in a difficult position. To complete the development of DOOM, the studio had to actively expand its staff in 2013–2014. At that time, specialists from Crytek's CryEngine team were hired, and external partners were brought in, including Escalation Studios (later becoming Bethesda Dallas) and Certain Affinity, which at that time employed about 140 developers.

A week earlier, Hugo Martin stated that id Software still employs about 50 people, and the id Tech engine continues to actively develop thanks to the joint work of engineers in the Frankfurt office and MachineGames studio.

However, according to Game Developer sources, the layoffs affected approximately half of the id Software team.