Layoffs reported at id Software and Bethesda after Xbox cuts
Reports from Game Developer, IGN and Kotaku point to heavy job losses across Microsoft-owned game studios after Xbox announced 3,200 cuts.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Microsoft’s Xbox layoffs have extended into some of its best-known game studios, with id Software and Bethesda teams reported to have taken steep cuts. The reports show the restructuring is reaching beyond platform roles and management layers into developers behind Doom, The Elder Scrolls and other franchises.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced plans this week for 3,200 layoffs across the division, according to Ars Technica. The initial message emphasized reductions in the Xbox platform organization and overlapping management roles, but later accounts from developers and game industry outlets described wider cuts at Microsoft-owned studios.
At id Software, Apogee and 3D Realms founder Scott Miller wrote on X that he had heard “insider reports” that most of the studio had been laid off, including many programmers. Miller has a long connection to id’s early history through Apogee’s role publishing some of the studio’s first games.
Michael Maynard, a veteran id programmer whose credits include Rage, wrote on LinkedIn that he was among about half of the studio’s staff let go Monday. Game Developer reported, citing multiple anonymous sources, that the cuts affected roughly 90 employees at the Doom studio.
The cuts came as id released the first downloadable content pack for Doom: The Dark Ages, according to Ars Technica. The game is one of the current pillars of id’s catalog, alongside franchises that helped define the first-person shooter genre.
John Romero, an id co-founder, wrote on X that he was saddened by the layoffs and praised the current team for maintaining the studio’s legacy. Romero said Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein are difficult franchises to carry in the modern industry, and he urged Microsoft to preserve the code and documentation tied to the present version of id, as he said he has done for the period when he led the studio before leaving in 1996.
Bethesda told staff it must change course
Bethesda also appears to be facing broad cuts. IGN reported that it obtained an email from Bethesda President Jill Braff thanking affected employees and telling staff the company must adjust its direction after the layoffs.
According to IGN, Bethesda studios were hit hard, and remaining employees face more uncertainty because Microsoft has said it plans another 1,600 layoffs during the fiscal year after 1,600 cuts this week. That would bring the Xbox reduction plan to 3,200 jobs.
In the email reported by IGN, Braff said Bethesda must become a company focused on its “strongest franchises.” She also wrote that the business needed to return to sustainable growth so it could keep investing in its games and players.
The shift could place added pressure on newer or live-service projects. IGN connected the strategy change to questions about Starfield’s future, while Kotaku reported that The Elder Scrolls Online team may have lost as many as half of its developers.
Taken together, the reports point to one of the sharpest contractions yet inside Microsoft’s gaming business since its major studio acquisitions. Microsoft owns Bethesda, id Software and ZeniMax Online through its purchase of ZeniMax Media.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.