Caught up in the wave of Xbox ‘reset’ layoffs that occurred last week, id Software has been hit particularly hard. And while official statements given by the studio maintain that it’s still of a decent enough size to make the kinds of games it used to, that sentiment’s at odds with many of the developers who were laid off.
It’s even at odds with some of the devs still working there. id Software producer Andrew Willis, who was a large part of the studio’s efforts to unionise back in 2025, has made a series of posts on LinkedIn which are still (understandably) furious, despite the studio’s official stance that things aren’t all ruined.
“I think the only way to fix the video game industry at this point is for developer owned studios to start rising from these studio closures and layoffs,” writes Willis, “We’ve got to learn from the past, be fiscally responsible, and create an environment of sustainable growth (though growth should be a byproduct of success, not a goal in and of itself).”
A “return to growth” was, after all, mentioned in Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s announcement. “we will return to growth in 2027”, Sharma said. Mind, that was also in the same post that announced there’d be another 1,600 layoffs happening by 2027, but hey. It’s a pretty standard tag-line for most big businesses—something to keep the shareholders happy.