Picture a studio that went from 185 employees to 49 in a single week — and somehow, in that exact moment, someone on the surviving team sits down to start planning the next entry in its flagship franchise. It sounds absurd, but that’s apparently exactly what’s happening at id Software right now.
The news didn’t come from Bethesda or Microsoft, but from The Verge journalist Tom Warren. According to him, the layoffs were brutal, but the studio hasn’t been turned into a “support” team — instead, early development on a new DOOM is already underway.
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What Happened to id Software Before the New DOOM News
In early July, Microsoft carried out a sweeping restructuring of its gaming division, cutting around 3,200 jobs across the company. id Software was hit especially hard: the studio lost 136 of its 185 employees, more than 70% of the team. The timing couldn’t have been worse — just a day earlier, on July 7, the studio shipped the Revelations expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages, and the layoffs landed right after the launch.
Which Projects Were on the Table Before the Layoffs
Before the cuts, the studio had been juggling several concepts in parallel: a new Perfect Dark, left without a home after The Initiative was shut down; a John Wick-style action game codenamed Fury from DOOM: The Dark Ages director Hugo Martin, built around a “Gun Fu” combat concept; a robot-western survival game called Ironwood, reminiscent of Westworld; and a co-op or multiplayer take on DOOM without a full new mainline entry. None of these projects were formally greenlit. With its headcount gutted, the studio can no longer chase several directions at once — which explains the pivot toward its most reliable asset, DOOM itself.
What We Know About the New DOOM So Far
Development is at the earliest possible stage — essentially pre-production. There’s been no official announcement from Bethesda or id Software, and it’s still unclear whether this is a full sequel or a smaller co-op-focused project. QuakeCon 2026 is being floated as a possible venue for a reveal — the event runs August 6–9 in Grapevine, Texas, and marks its 30th anniversary this year, the same milestone as Quake itself.
What Comes Next for DOOM Fans
id Software has survived as a studio and has already started pre-production on a new DOOM, despite losing three-quarters of its team. That’s no guarantee of a quick release — building a AAA game with a skeleton crew takes years. Still, the signal for fans is a positive one: the franchise isn’t being shelved or handed off to another studio. The next checkpoint to watch is QuakeCon 2026 in August.
