The recent layoffs at Xbox have sparked concerns about the future of id Software, the beloved maker of DOOM. However, despite the callousness of Microsoft's bean counters, I'm confident the studio will endure. Microsoft has no plans to shelve id Tech, the engine that powers DOOM and other id Software games. In fact, the cuts to id Software have hit the teams that develop id Tech hard, but rumors that there's now virtually nobody working on the engine are false. Microsoft has no plans to shift either id Software or Machine Games to Unreal Engine, which seems to have become the default for Microsoft and many other core game makers.
One thing that immediately stands out is the fact that Microsoft would have to be miserably short-sighted to deprecate id Tech. Handing even more power to Unreal Engine opens them up to monopolistic price increases down the line, which would be fiscally irresponsible. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma herself said in her memo to staff that she wants Microsoft to rely less on vendors for things like this. As such, I would argue that Microsoft should invest more in id Tech, not less. But hey, quarterly thinking is Microsoft's M.O. these days. And it is true that generational talent and knowledge has been cast aside.
The cuts at id Software have been heavy and painful. Some have claimed the studio's lauded id Tech engine is effectively on ice, and that id is no longer large enough to produce its own games. However, the remaining id Software core team is roughly the same as it was when DOOM (2016) shipped, and the studio just shipped DOOM: The Dark Ages Revelations, a sizeable story expansion for last year's DOOM prequel. What the studio builds next remains to be seen, but Xbox CEO Asha Sharma specifically called out DOOM and Quake as franchises to invest in.
In my view, Microsoft's gaming aspirations have been heavily course corrected over the past week, in what CEO Asha Sharma has been describing as a "reset." This has led to sizeable reductions in teams working on a variety of projects, from The Elder Scrolls to Xbox's social media delivery and platform features. Other studios, like Blizzard, seem to have emerged largely unscathed so far. And Xbox's hardware team building Helix has also been left intact. While rumors of id Software's demise have been greatly exaggerated, the layoffs have still been callous and brutal. Staffers with decades of expertise and tenure were let go, despite the success of the modern DOOM trilogy.
One thing that many people don't realize is that Microsoft's lack of investment in Xbox's platform and social features have prevented it from finding new users out of the Gen-X and Gen-Y cohorts, many of whom are starting to age out. Where Xbox goes from here wholly remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: DOOM is eternal, and it will outlive Microsoft's bad decision-making. Personally, I think that Microsoft should invest more in id Tech, not less. What makes this particularly fascinating is the fact that the cuts at id Software have been heavy and painful, but the studio has still managed to ship DOOM: The Dark Ages Revelations. This raises a deeper question: how can a studio with a smaller headcount produce such high-quality games?
