Microsoft’s Xbox layoffs have reportedly carved through id Software, the studio behind Doom, with Game Developer reporting that about half of the company’s staff has been laid off. One person familiar with the cuts told the publication the number amounted to more than 90 jobs, while another said the studio’s quality assurance group was hit hard.
The timing is grim even by games industry standards: the report landed the same day id released a major expansion for its latest Doom game. That is the kind of calendar collision that makes corporate restructuring language sound especially antiseptic.
Former id employee Michael Maynard, who said he was affected by the cuts, backed up the scale of the layoffs in a LinkedIn post. Maynard wrote that the layoffs affected “roughly” 50 percent of id and criticized Microsoft and Xbox for deciding that half the team should be let go despite work from designers, programmers, artists, audio staff, level designers, effects artists, and technical designers.
Id is part of ZeniMax, the Microsoft-owned group that also includes Bethesda. Bloomberg reported Monday that ZeniMax would put more attention on major franchises, including Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Quake, and Wolfenstein. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier also wrote on Bluesky that id would lose a “significant number of staff.”
Union says ZeniMax teams were hit broadly
Id’s developers unionized last year, joining a growing bloc of unionized game workers inside Microsoft. The Communications Workers of America said the layoffs also struck Bethesda Game Studios and ZeniMax Online Studios.
Derrick Osobase, vice president of CWA District 6, said in a statement that the cuts “decimated” teams responsible for series including Doom, Quake, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. Osobase argued the layoffs would hurt game quality, make releases take longer, and ultimately damage Microsoft’s revenue. That is the union’s assessment, not something Microsoft has confirmed.
John Romero, an id co-founder, posted support for workers affected by the cuts on Bluesky. Romero said he was sorry for those leaving id and described the experience of departing a studio tied to one’s work, friendships, and history as painful. Romero has also been touched by Microsoft’s earlier gaming cuts: Microsoft reportedly canceled funding for a Romero Games project during Xbox layoffs in July 2025.
The cuts are part of a wider Xbox reduction
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said about 1,600 Xbox employees were laid off Monday, with another roughly 1,600 cuts planned during Microsoft’s next fiscal year, which runs through June 2027. Those reductions sit inside broader Microsoft layoffs affecting 4,800 workers, according to The Verge.
Blizzard Entertainment, which sits under Activision, had not been hit immediately by layoffs, according to reporting cited by Windows Central. In a staff memo reported by the outlet, Blizzard president Johanna Faries told employees to expect more information about what the day’s events mean for Blizzard.
Microsoft has spent the past several years buying some of the best-known names in games. The current round of cuts shows what that consolidation looks like after the deal slides are filed away: fewer teams making the franchises the company says it wants to emphasize.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
