The studio has shown signs of life after the team was also caught up in the now almost obligatory annual wave of layoffs in July.

After Asha Sharma, the CEO of Xbox, carried out mass layoffs as part of a “major restructuring” of the division, the Texas-based id Software studio made headlines repeatedly as more and more signs pointed to the company no longer operating at full capacity. A WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice filed in Texas stated that 136 of the approximately 185 employees were laid off. This raised serious concerns that the studio was becoming a support team for others, specifically MachineGames, which had already taken over management of the Wolfenstein IP.

Kotaku reported that only one engineer remained on the id Tech team, raising the possibility of a transition to Unreal Engine 5. However, id Software sought to dispel fears circulating among fans with a tweet. The studio claims to have sufficient staff to continue developing the games and technologies for which it is known.

“Thank you all for the support this week. While our studio was impacted, those changes were spread across teams. We still have the crew we need to build the games and technology we’re known for. Our team is currently about the same size as when we made DOOM (2016). We have always had a flat studio where everyone is a maker, and we will remain true to that philosophy moving forward. We are focused on supporting each other and the impacted team members. We’re going to continue building the exceptional games and technology that have defined us for the past 35 years. We look forward to seeing you at QuakeCon this August,” wrote id Software.

while the id layoffs have been deep, I understand the changes haven’t turned id into a support studio. Instead, they’re now in the early stages of a new Doom game https://t.co/6yhf5wA66U

– Tom Warren (@tomwarren) July 11, 2026

It’s great news that id Software intends to keep moving forward despite its significantly reduced staff. However, it remains to be seen whether this will affect the quality of their future games. As a reminder, their latest release is the DLC titled DOOM: The Dark Ages – Revelations. According to the studio, it is their best content yet. Incidentally, Tom Warren, an editor at The Verge, noted that, despite the layoffs, id Software is more than just a support studio and has already begun work on a new DOOM game.

Will they be using the id Tech engine?

Source: WCCFTech