In announcing plans for 3,200 layoffs across the Xbox division yesterday, CEO Asha Sharma focused on discussing cuts to the Xbox platform team and redundant layers of middle management. Now, though, word is filtering out about significant staffing cuts at remaining Microsoft-owned game developers including id Software and Bethesda.
Apogee and 3D Realms founder Scott Miller—who helped publish some of id’s earliest games—wrote on social media yesterday of “insider reports” that a majority of id had been laid off, “including most (if not all) coders.” And last night, veteran programmer Michael Maynard—whose credits at id Software date back to 2011’s Rage—wrote on LinkedIn that he was among the “roughly 50%” of the id team that was let go Monday.
Game Developer cites “multiple anonymous sources” in confirming those reports, saying the redundancies amount to about 90 employees at the Doom studio. The first DLC pack for last year’s Doom: The Dark Ages launched earlier today.
Id co-founder John Romero wrote in a social media thread about his sorrow over the layoffs, saying that the people behind the current incarnation of the company “have done a great job” maintaining its 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.” Romero also urged Microsoft to preserve the code and documents associated with the current version of id, as Romero says he has for the incarnation he helped lead until 1996.
“Just really sad that this is how id Software, the pioneer/innovator of FPS action games is relegated to just another ‘reorganization’ of assets,” Maynard wrote in his LinkedIn post.
Meanwhile, IGN obtained an email from Bethesda President Jill Braff to staffers expressing “sincere gratitude” to “a number of our colleagues” who were impacted by the layoffs. IGN says employees at Bethesda Studios were “hit particularly hard” by the layoffs, while remaining staffers are “facing an uncertain future” as Microsoft said it is planning to lay off 1,600 more employees throughout this fiscal year (in addition to 1,600 let go yesterday).
The changes in strategy and headcount mean that Bethesda “need[s] to change course,” Braff wrote in her email, transforming into a company “that focuses on our strongest franchises.” That could be bad news for newer franchises like Starfield and for The Elder Scrolls Online, with the latter game losing as much as half of its developers, according to a Kotaku report.
“We must strengthen our business, return to sustainable growth, and ensure we can continue investing in our franchises and our players,” Braff continued in her message to employees. “I know that doesn’t make a day like today any easier.”
