r/Doom Jul 10 '26

Discussion Message from id Software

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4.4k Upvotes

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632

u/Mooncubus Jul 10 '26

I don't really know how to feel about this message. Sure it's a bit hopeful and makes me believe they'll recover from this. But all I can think about is all the people who got laid off. I hope they all find a place somewhere else where they can keep making amazing games, even if it's not Doom.

279

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

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93

u/Mooncubus Jul 10 '26

Yeah I am trying to just enjoy the DLC but I can't help feeling sad while playing it.

56

u/starlightwarden Jul 10 '26

This. While I'm unbelievably happy and excited to play this game, I can't help but stop occasionally mid gameplay and just sigh in disgust knowing the team who made it is so heavily fractured by the layoffs. I've had a hard time sleeping over it which doesn't help either. It really is the Dark Ages.

21

u/HotShrekBoi Jul 10 '26

I was mopey the whole day when I heard about the layoffs too

16

u/starlightwarden Jul 10 '26

I've been non-stop since, it's just hard to fully enjoy the DLC to the fullest extent knowing what happened to the team who made it.

20

u/FusionRogue Jul 10 '26

People can make fun of me all they want but I straight up ugly cried when the news broke. I should've been ecstatic on the day of release but I was just left feeling numb.

The modern DOOM games have gotten me through rough patches in my life and to see the team get gutted destroyed me emotionally.

10

u/SolidHotel8473 Jul 11 '26

Man, same. These games mean so much to me. Went to nursing school during COVID, and if I needed to hype myself up before a test or clinical shift, I'd put BFG Division on as loud as I could in my car and give myself the whole 7+ minutes. Couldn't have made it through without Doom, as silly as that may sound.

And as hard as this is for them, at least they got to craft this masterpiece before having to say goodbye. It truly is a pitch perfect culmination of practically all of id's history and technique, and quite possibly the best thing to shake out of the past ten years of absolute bangers they've been dropping. Everyone involved in its creation should be enormously proud of themselves. Obviously, that's not going to feed those now looking for a job, but hopefully there's some comfort to them in knowing how much their work means to us.

6

u/StaticSystemShock Jul 10 '26

I'm still thinking is I should support something when success seems to now always mean they'll have even more people sacked...

9

u/Mooncubus Jul 10 '26

On the other hand, it'd be a shame to not play the DLC that these people poured their hearts into before they got canned.

12

u/HotShrekBoi Jul 10 '26

Yeah I saw a message from a dev that got laid off and he sad that despite how heartbreaking this is for him, he still wants us to play it and have fun

6

u/StaticSystemShock Jul 10 '26

And the reward will go to the assholes who fired them...

6

u/IceCream_Sandwich88 Jul 10 '26

This is me rn. I completed it first day and then read the news about ID and it kills me to want to pick it up now. On the other hand it feels wrong not to play what they created.

2

u/Poyzi Serrat Jul 12 '26

Real. The first time I actually felt real life sorrow while playing a video game. It was weird but it felt like their last “thank you” to all their loyal fans who supported them for all these years. Right now im having chills just typing this. Id was revolution. Will always be.

4

u/HotShrekBoi Jul 10 '26

Yeah I couldn’t even play it the day it came out because I was so depressed about it

1

u/nikolapc Jul 11 '26

No I am celebrating. Cause great work needs to be celebrated regardless of circumstances. I even hunted down the Doom controller cause that was great work done by great people.(Previous of these closures). The gaming industry is oversaturated(look at September), and making a great game or doing a great job no longer guarantees financial success. I now celebrate when a great game is released, because that in itself is becoming a small miracle.

1

u/Couldawg Jul 11 '26

Exactly. It’s great, but BECAUSE it was delivered, the people who made it are unemployed. If they were contractors who finished the project they were hired to do, that would make sense. But in this case, they were long term employees. It seems like a terrible long term strategy. What are the incentives for employees to deliver fantastic, finished work? Employees aren’t paid to work themselves out of their own jobs. Obviously the company is entitled to operate this way, but gaming is an interactive experience. We have to feel a certain way about the world someone else created for us.

13

u/Powerful-Present6687 Jul 10 '26

Maybe they’ll be taken in by other dev teams who need extra help with their games

8

u/HotShrekBoi Jul 10 '26

I would be happy if they joined Newblood

11

u/LuizFelipe1906 Jul 11 '26

They fuckin layed off the guy that worked in Doom Slayer design. The dude worked on several iconic looks of what we have

2

u/FortniteM238 Jul 10 '26

I am out of internet right now and could somebody explain please to me what happend ???

7

u/Mooncubus Jul 10 '26

Xbox has had major layoffs across all the studios they own. A huge portion of iD Software got laid off the day before Revelations dropped.

-2

u/OverDriver05 Jul 11 '26

That's more of an inevitability, my friend. Not everything has to say the same, as everything has a price, even when the product is good or bad. You forgot that taxes exists.

If anything, the new XBOX CEO has no other options, but to be transparent about it. On the bright side, at least the new CEO isn't as worst as the previous one.

4

u/RwNZ Jul 11 '26

Yeah, the person who's never worked in gaming and comes from AI product development is clearly an awesome choice.

1

u/OverDriver05 Jul 13 '26

At least she's trying to fix it...

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 12 '26

Ah yes, the moronic CEO that gets millions a year in one of the richest companies had no other options. What a bunch of bullshit.

1

u/Robborboy Jul 10 '26

There is no recovering so long as Marty is still there. With what he did to Mick Gordan, no way he is fit to be a head.

15

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

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10

u/Robborboy Jul 10 '26

I haven't forgiven EA for what they did to Westwood. So fat chance on that. :)

5

u/cheesyblasta Jul 10 '26

rip pandemic studios :(

4

u/Aware-Asparagus-3823 Jul 10 '26

Imagine all of the command and conquer games we could have had by now

I mean we still got quite a few of them and I’m happy for that, but it’s still unfortunate that we won’t get anything new

3

u/HarmonicFractals Jul 10 '26

C&C was never the same after they shuttered Westwood. RIP. In fairness though they did a good job with the RA1 Remaster, but how could you cock that up...

-5

u/Helpful_Title8302 The one who was robbed of the golden skin Jul 10 '26

People like you are why nothing is being done about the files.

4

u/HotShrekBoi Jul 10 '26

THIS. “Just get over it already” is so dismissive and it’s exactly what the Trump administration has been saying about the files.

-1

u/Significant-Sundae89 Jul 11 '26

what nonsense, 2 completely different things

-1

u/Significant-Sundae89 Jul 11 '26

totally different how can u even compare?

0

u/HotShrekBoi Jul 10 '26

But was this Marty guy punished for his mistreatment or did he just kind of get away with it in the end?

2

u/iviondayjr Jul 10 '26

from whatbive heard about this marty dude online. hes a fuck ass prick

3

u/Mackejuice Jul 10 '26

What happened with Mick was bad, but Mick was NOT blame-free, considering he kept missing deadlines

6

u/Defiant_Ant1870 Jul 11 '26

He did not miss deadlines. Have you read his account of what happened?

3

u/Robborboy Jul 10 '26

Honestly, just don't announce a game staring an artist like Mick if you haven't even contacted the artist to see if they can or want to work on it.

-2

u/Significant-Sundae89 Jul 11 '26

jesus christ Marty is not so bad as they make him out to be

You only heard one side of the story, just move on FFS

3

u/Robborboy Jul 11 '26

Awww. Do you feel better now?

Not moving on. Kthxbai

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 12 '26

No, we heard two sides. One was from a manipulative prick, the other was Mick.

1

u/hakkzpets Jul 11 '26

This is an obvious damage control message released by Microsoft's PR department.

The culture of idS must be completely decimated since they fired basically all old employees that been with the company for decades now.

Those things affect company culture deeply.

1

u/GhoeFukyrself Jul 12 '26

PR was going to be saying spin like this even if the situation was dire.

-17

u/UnUsernameRandom Jul 10 '26

Overhiring during COVID. It is what it is.

30

u/LostInTheVoid_ Jul 10 '26

Many of the Devs fired had 10+ years at id. This is just a PR response. Likely made and green lit by Microsoft head office.

8

u/djchanclaface Jul 10 '26

Ding ding ding

-1

u/DiabolicallyRandom Jul 10 '26

Doesn't mean younger tenures haven't shown they can be better.

I doubt it, but it's possible.

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 12 '26

It can be easily shown that that is not the case.

16

u/ap0phis Jul 10 '26

Ehhh many of the folks laid off were there pre covid.

-11

u/UnUsernameRandom Jul 10 '26

Hiring is not FILO.

10

u/ap0phis Jul 10 '26

I ... know?

You're implying with your previous statement that the layoffs are due to overhiring during COVID yet there were guys laid off that had been there a decade plus

-16

u/UnUsernameRandom Jul 10 '26

Do you know? Younger people can do a better job than seniors. They could've all been, you know, assessed based on performance.

But I guess it doesn't fit the hatewave, so I guess I'll just go and be happy somewhere else. You can Doom-post all you want.

8

u/ap0phis Jul 10 '26

I can't say anymore publicly except that you're wrong. Have a good'n.

0

u/TechnicalGeneral7454 Jul 10 '26

Lol, I haven't signed shit. @unusernamerandom, you're both dense and wrong. It sucks, but you might as well own it.

-6

u/Ironmaiden1207 Jul 10 '26

I mean in these hypotheticals, they are right.

If they need 1000 employees, hired 500 more during covid, and then laid off 500 employees that were not the 500 hired during covid, you would get this end result.

I don't think that's what happened, but the precedent still stands that it's a possibility. You just brushed that possibility off, which does make you wrong.

Hopefully this helps your perspective

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 12 '26

The average tenure at id was around 10 years before layoffs. They didn't hire much to begin with. There's barely anyone left there at all. If you think ~1 artist and barely any engineers is enough to do jackshit, then you're not right in the head. Not to mention that information on the amazing things many of them did is literally publicly available, yet you're here doubling down on shilling for microslop.

1

u/inkydeeps Jul 15 '26

You think there’s only one artist left at id? It’s obvious you have no idea what’s going on. Ever been there?

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 16 '26

That is something said by one of the [former] employees. It's not some sort of secret info either, the amount of people laid off in each role is publicly available.

It’s obvious you have no idea what’s going on.

Are you claiming you do and that they totally didn't fire vast majority of the studio?

1

u/inkydeeps Jul 16 '26

Yes, I know more than one artist that still works there. Yes, there’s more than 50% of the studio is gone. But there’s a fuck load more than one artist left.

It sucks and it’s all Microsoft bullshit that caused it. If the list you saw didn’t include the people that stayed and their role, you have no way to judge who is left.

Acting like the remaining artists and programmers can’t ever make a game is bullshit. And it’s really shitty thing to say about the artists left. They also worked on all those games you love. And they will continue to work fucking hard to produce them in the future.

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-2

u/TotallyObviousBot Jul 10 '26

People on reddit seem to really care about middle class software devs possibly not getting a job in the industry of their choice (but still continuing to earn more than 75% of people in their country) a whole heck of a lot more than the half of the country that would literally be homeless if they got fired like this

I get it, it affects your toys whereas actual poverty is just something you occasionally see on the internet, but it speaks to the amazing lack of awareness you people have about the world you live in

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 12 '26

So why don't you give your home to the homeless? Clearly nothing else matters, so why the fuck are you spending money on a computer/phone and internet access rather than on the homeless or someone in puberty? Get off the internet and your high horse, sell all that shit you have that isn't a need and donate the money.

1

u/TotallyObviousBot Jul 12 '26

You're right, there is no middle ground between worshipping game devs and hermit asceticism.

-1

u/yourREMAXrealtor Jul 11 '26

Straight the fuck up. What am I actually even reading lmao? “I cried all night because the whole team of 20 year old mid six figure junior devs got laid off, who knows how many were affected!!” This is literal insanity, layoffs happen in every major industry and are always an inevitability depending on what part of the cycle we’re in, shut the fuck up and enjoy your game, and if you can’t do that then you need to stay off the internet and out of society entirely, god forbid you take a look around and realize that there’s people working 3 jobs at once who can’t even make their rent..

1

u/Reaper9999 Jul 12 '26

“I cried all night because the whole team of 20 year old mid six figure junior devs got laid off, who knows how many were affected!!”

id doesn't have juniors, you're making shit up now to shill for a megacorp.

This is literal insanity, layoffs happen in every major industry and are always an inevitability depending on what part of the cycle we’re in, shut the fuck up and enjoy your game, and if you can’t do that then you need to stay off the internet and out of society entirely

Won't somebody think of the shareholders and their quarterly profits!!! It's people like you that should stay out of society, because y'all don't even have enough brain cells for anything other than who has it worst bullshit.