id Software co-director Hugo Martin recently made headlines for suggesting the studio isn't as degraded as people think following the firing of the majority of its employees in Xbox's recent wave of layoffs.

"There have been reports that we've been nerfed into the ground and gutted, and we have 50 people, and that's not true," Martin said during a livestream to celebrate the launch of Doom: The Dark Ages' recent expansion, Revelations. "We're the size we were when we made Doom (2016) and id Tech is very much alive and well."

There had been reports—since denied by Xbox—that the engine team working on id Tech is now just a single person following the mass firing.

Hugo Martin's Comments Upset Many At Id

According to reporting from GameDeveloper, Martin's comments caused a stir among those who were laid off. According to the outlet's anonymous sources, Martin is misrepresenting the truth and painting a rosier picture than is the reality at id Software.

According to them, two-thirds of the people who worked on Doom (2016) have been laid off, including many developers considered integral to the studio's development process.

"I don't agree with Hugo's statement, and many who were laid off were upset by those comments and saw it as viewing their contributions as insignificant to the success of our games. I've been a gamer my whole life. If you cut a stat in half, everyone would call that nerfed. In truth, the Doom team is half here, half thrown away," a current employee of id Software told GameDeveloper.

Others were incredulous that Martin would hold Doom (2016) up as a great success, considering the team underwent brutal crunch periods to finish the game. Several of those who worked "unsafe hours" to finish Doom (2016) were laid off by Xbox.

The studio had been in an "awful spot" after a mass exodus in 2011, and hiring ramped up to finish Doom (2016) and save the studio between 2013-2014. The majority of people responsible for saving id Software a decade ago have now been cut loose by the studio's parent company.

id Software's next project is currently unknown, but the new regime at Xbox Game Studios is stripping away the independence enjoyed by studios under Phil Spencer, which means the immediate future of id Software is almost wholly in the hands of Xbox.

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DOOM

FPS Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 86/100 Critics Rec: 92% Released May 13, 2016 ESRB M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language Developer(s) id Software Publisher(s) Bethesda Softworks
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