New CEO Asha Sharma hit the reset button on Xbox yesterday, taking out 1,600 jobs at once with another 1,600 cuts still to come before the end of the year. Very few studios escaped the scythe: even id Software’s legendary name did not save it, and it quickly became clear the studio had been swept up in the bloodletting.
Now, anonymous sources tell Game Developer that the losses at id amount to around half the studio, and that the QA department in particular has been heavily affected. Meanwhile, id co-founder John Romero has taken to social media to express his grief at the cuts.
“I’m so sorry for everyone at id Software affected by these layoffs,” wrote Romero. “I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It’s a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history.” Romero, famously, was forced to resign from id in the mid-’90s after clashing with fellow co-founder John Carmack (they’re on better terms now).
Romero, for his part, is pretty chuffed with how id’s current devs have continued the studio’s legacy. “Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today’s industry,” he wrote. “The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people.”