id Software is one of the most iconic developers when it comes to the first person shooter genre, responsible for the making of some of the most genre-defining experiences such as Doom, Quake and more. And the legendary studio had also taken some of the heaviest losses in the ongoing ‘Reset’ process from Xbox, resulting in a total of 136 out of 185 employees being let go from the studio which has also amounted to the loss of over 70% of id Software’s overall workforce.
The drastic job cuts are part of a massive ongoing restructuring process that has seen 1600 staff losing their jobs on Monday and 3200 employees scheduled to be let go by the end of the current fiscal year. Also, four studios have been let out from the Xbox brand including Arkane, Ninja Theory, Double Fine and Compulsion Games with possibly another developer as well.
And now, John Carmack who co-founded id Software in 1991 alongside John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack, has expressed his view on the recent layoffs by Microsoft which is the following:
“I’m saddened, but I can’t muster anger or outrage over it. I don’t have access to the books, but I suspect that id Software was a marginal business from Microsoft’s perspective. I believe the reports that Minecraft revenues have been carrying several other studios.
To continue being produced long term, games need to succeed, not just be beloved.
Games are competing with every other option for spending your leisure time and money, and the competition is brutal.
You can’t rule out the possibility that executives are idiots, but that shouldn’t be your default belief. I don’t think there is any obvious path that would have doubled the revenue from Id games.
Could they have gotten more with a different pricing strategy?
Could they have created more things for fans to buy?
Could they have cost effectively marketed in a way that reached more players that would have loved and bought the games?
Could they have changed the game designs and broadened the appeal to more players without alienating existing ones?
Could they have produced the games at a lower cost, faster or cheaper?
I really don’t know.
The game isn’t over yet, and I hope the studio rallies through.”
It has been known that prior to the layoffs, id software was reportedly toying with ideas for several projects which included a John Wick-inspired title, a new Perfect Dark game and more.
