Microsoft's decision to eliminate 92 of 185 full-time positions at id Software has torpedoed multiple unannounced game concepts the studio was developing, according to internal sources.
The cuts arrived shortly after id Software completed work on Doom: The Dark Ages DLC and began scouting its next major franchise project. The studio had been exploring at least four distinct directions for future releases, each positioned as an attempt to break free from its identity as a pure Doom powerhouse.
One proposal centered on a cooperative and multiplayer Doom experience that would resurrect weapons from across the franchise's three-decade history. Another involved claiming the Perfect Dark license, which became available after Xbox dissolved The Initiative and shelved its planned Perfect Dark reboot.
The most ambitious internal pitch was codenamed Fury, a noir science fiction game designed for Project Helix, Xbox's next-generation hardware. Developers envisioned it as a John Wick-style experience set in a criminal underworld populated by Chicago and Louisiana gangsters, blending martial arts combat with gunplay in a cinematic package.
A fourth project drew inspiration from the HBO series Westworld, conceptualized as a survival game, though few other details emerged about its scope.
None of these projects appear likely to proceed. Laid-off employees told GamesBeat that the studio lacks the workforce to continue developing ambitious new titles. "I'm not convinced there is a viable way forward," one former developer said, describing the layoffs as "a bunch of knee-jerk responses."
id Software may pivot toward a support role, assisting on other Xbox initiatives including The Elder Scrolls 6, Wolfenstein 3, and Marvel's Blade rather than leading its own creative ventures.
The situation mirrors the upheaval at Turn 10 Studios last year, when the Forza Motorsport team faced similar reductions. That franchise now sits in limbo, overshadowed by the commercially stronger Forza Horizon series and uncertainty about its future direction.
Author Emily Chen: "Xbox's pattern of gutting studios and then wondering why projects stall is becoming impossible to ignore."
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