Doom: The Dark Ages director disputes reports that id Software was gutted

The director of Doom: The Dark Ages has publicly disputed reports that id Software was hollowed out by Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, saying the studio is the same size it was when it made Doom in 2016. Hugo Martin made the remarks during an official livestream for the game's Revelations DLC, which shipped the same week 136 id workers lost their jobs, Rock Paper Shotgun reports.

Martin addressed the coverage directly around 50 minutes into the stream, in comments first picked up by Kotaku. He rejected characterizations that the team had been cut down to a skeleton crew of about 50 people, and said id Tech, the studio's engine, remains in active development, with engineers working on it in Frankfurt and at MachineGames.

He added that the team was looking forward to sharing more of its work when that was appropriate and approved. id senior community lead Joshua Boyle used the same stream to thank players for getting behind the Revelations release, and for amplifying the work of colleagues affected by the cuts.

Martin also said The Dark Ages is performing well against forecast, a point Rock Paper Shotgun flags as notable. Developers have said since the layoffs that studios including id and ZeniMax were never given a clear picture of which success metrics Microsoft was measuring their games against, leaving staff unsure which of those measures, if any, they had contributed most to missing.

Unions backed by the Communications Workers of America and representing laid-off staff at Bethesda, ZeniMax and id held rallies outside the studios' offices in the same week, according to Rock Paper Shotgun, while the names and titles of departing senior staff have begun to surface through WARN notices.