identification softwarethe studio responsible for many beloved Xbox franchises like CONDEMN, WolfensteinQuake and more, has seen A large part of its staff laid off by Microsoft as part of the company Restructuring of the Xbox brand, which caused more than 3,200 people to lose their jobs..
Following this announcement, John Carmack, one of the founders of id Software (along with John Romero, Tom Hall and Adrian Carmack), who also helped create DOOM, Wolfensteinand the Quake franchises, has responded on social media with his opinion on the situation.
I’ve been trying to find something meaningful to say about the Id Software layoffs. My “Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand” statement isn’t aging well, and this will certainly affect the mood of the founders’ meeting at QuakeCon next month. I’m…July 9, 2026
Most of the responses to Xbox’s mass layoffs, which were filled with anger and frustration, as former The scathing message from id Software animator Skai Chow: “I hope our pain was worth it” or fear of the future, such as Bethesda fearing that it will be so negatively impact the development of The Elder Scrolls 6or even Spell the end of Fallout 76 without the help of an outside studio.
However, John Carmack’s answer seems more neutral in comparison. While he was definitely sad (although he admitted that his comment about Microsoft being a good steward of the brand isn’t aging well), he couldn’t get angry or disappointed about these layoffs as he said: “I’m sad, but I can’t get angry or outraged about 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 crushing several other studios.”
John Carmack then stated that, at the end of the day, the gaming industry is a brutal business with tons of competitors competing for your time and money, and if you are not financially successful, you will be left behind no matter how beloved your creation is.
Additionally, while it’s easy to blame Microsoft’s higher-ups, John Carmack says that “you can’t rule out the possibility that executives are idiots, but that shouldn’t be their default belief. I don’t think there’s any obvious path that would have doubled revenue from Id games.”
Ask what kind of strategies id Software could have done to avoid this, such as using a different pricing strategy, creating more things for fans to buy, or using a profitable marketing scheme to reach more players.
Ultimately, he has no answer to this conundrum, but John Carmack knows it’s not over yet and hopes id Software recovers from this tough blow.
Windows Central’s opinion
While I personally don’t know the answer to this question, I do know that my colleague, Jez Corden, says that Rumors about the disappearance of id Software are greatly exaggerated.
Although the job cuts have been brutal to the point of putting a brake on Id Software Pitches for Perfect Dark Reboot and John Wick-Style GameMicrosoft has not announced any plans to close id Software in the short term.
In fact, Microsoft has even issued us a statement regarding rumored job cuts that would put id Software’s lauded id Tech (an engine that has greatly optimized the performance of games like the modern DOOM games and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) on ice, which says, “There are dozens of people working at id Tech in multiple locations. Reports that there is only one person left in Texas are inaccurate.”
Either way, I hope id Software survives this tumultuous time in gaming. They produced some of the most incredible first-person shooters I’ve ever played, like DOOM (2016) and DOOM: Eternal, and it would be a complete travesty if the studio closed down forever.
Stay tuned for more news as we keep an eye on new developments related to damage caused by xbox“Reset” throughout the company.
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