id Software Co-Founders John Carmack and John Romero Post Messages Following Mass Layoffs - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 July 2026 / 7,547 Views
Doom developer id Software was hit with mass layoffs as part of the overall Xbox layoffs this week. The Texas-based studio saw 96 employees made redundant, along with 40 remote workers.
Two of the co-founders of id Software, John Carmack and John Romero, have posted their feelings on the layoffs that have hit the developer.
Carmack and Romero, along with the other two co-founders at id Software, Tom Hall and Adrian Carmack, will be special guests at this years QuakeCon, which will take place from August 6 to 9 in Grapevine, Texas.
Read the message from John Carmack from below:
I have been trying to find something meaningful to say about the Id Software layoffs.
My “Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand” statement isn’t aging well, and this is certainly going to dampen the mood of the founder reunion at QuakeCon next month.
I’m saddened, but I can’t muster anger or outrage over it. I don’t have access to the books, but I suspect that Id Software was a marginal business from Microsoft’s perspective. I believe the reports that Minecraft revenues have been carrying several other studios.
To continue being produced long term, games need to succeed, not just be beloved.
Games are competing with every other option for spending your leisure time and money, and the competition is brutal.
You can’t rule out the possibility that executives are idiots, but that shouldn’t be your default belief. I don’t think there is any obvious path that would have doubled the revenue from Id games.
Could they have gotten more with a different pricing strategy?
Could they have created more things for fans to buy?
Could they have cost effectively marketed in a way that reached more players that would have loved and bought the games?
Could they have changed the game designs and broadened the appeal to more players without alienating existing ones?
Could they have produced the games at a lower cost, faster or cheaper?
I really don’t know.
The game isn’t over yet, and I hope the studio rallies through.
Read the message from John Romero from below:
I’m so sorry for everyone at id Software affected by these layoffs.
I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It’s a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history.
The people at id have done a great job moving that legacy forward. DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today’s industry. The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people.
A note on digital preservation: id's history is critically important to the history of games. I’ve preserved id’s complete early history from our start at Softdisk through to August 6, 1996, including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has. I hope someone is doing the same for the company’s ongoing legacy (the work, code, assets, stories and the people behind them).
I’m thinking of everyone at id today, and everyone else affected by yesterday’s layoffs. Romero Games was there a year ago. I know how devastating it is, and my heart's with all of you.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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When will dev companies learn to be bought by a big company will always be a dissaster
look at Rare, practically every major employee left, how was that Microsoft's fault? they got their money and wanted to retire or make their own game company
Stamper brothers got their money and never made games again (like Bioware founders) and the Perfect Dark team had already left to make Timesplitters
often the owner of the studio gets a big paycheck and the employees get bonuses and leave, it isn't always clearly the buyer's fault
Thanks for nothing, Microsoft.
Oh man, I completely forgot that id's founders were going to be getting together for the first time in decades for Quakecon's 30th anniversary. That's gonna be a demoralizing reunion.
Out of all the layoffs at Xbox this one stings the most....by far. I get cutting middle management and trimming the fat so to speak at Xbox. But id has released 3 well received Doom games and what do they get in return? Laying off half (more?) of the developer.
Asha has mentioned wanting to put of a focus on Xbox's biggest IPs. Imagine what id could have done with Halo.
Also, if Doom is not considered one of Xbox's "biggest IPs" post the 2016 revival, any IP is on the table for being cut, except for idk, Forza?
Carmack is a Neo Nazi. I'm not reading anything he says
