id Software are without a doubt one of the most important game developers in the first person genre history. The technology empowering their games, idTech powers a shocking number of games and even game engines ( we ranked it 4th in our Most Important Game Engines of all Time ranking). This era might be coming to a close as it’s being reported that most, if not all, developers working on idTech at id Software have been fired.
This comes as part of the MASSIVE layoffs across all Xbox divisions. Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Xbox tweeted the email that was sent to the entire company. It explains why the layoffs are happening, starting with:
We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.
Since this announcement, several additional details have been made available about the impact of the layoffs, several surrounding id Software, starting with this Tweet from Apogee founder Scott Miller:
Additionally Rebs Gaming tweeted the following linked in post from impacted id Software developer and 20+ year id veteran Michael Maynard:
Key Links
Game Industry.biz Coverage of Layoffs Across Studios
You can learn more about the XBox layoffs, the idTech game engine and more in the video below.