id Software, one of the most iconic names in the first person shooter genre with groundbreaking titles such as Doom and Quake, has received 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. However, despite the drastic reduction in total employee numbers, a new industry report has just surfaced which claims that a new Doom game from the studio is underway and is currently at the early stages of development.
According to Tom Warren of The Verge: “While the id layoffs have been deep, I understand the changes haven’t turned id into a support studio. Instead, they’re now in the early stages of a new Doom game.”
This effectively puts to rest all concerns of whether id Software would be capable of putting out any new title after the recent, brutal layoffs that has seen a total of 1600 staff losing their jobs this past week and 3200 employees scheduled to be let go by the end of the current fiscal year.
Also, another rumor had surfaced that with most of id Software’s devs gone, Microsoft may shift the studio to use Unreal Engine instead of the older but still perfectly capable id Tech engine and according to Windows Central, those concerns aren’t true as well.
“There are dozens of people working on id Tech across multiple locations. Reports that there’s only one person left in Texas are inaccurate.”
This means the id Tech engine is fully alive and well, and would be used in future projects from the studio so no worries there.
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.
