John Carmack has reacted to a major round of layoffs at id Software, the studio that he co-founded in 1991. Microsoft is cutting 136 roles (reports indicate over half of its headcount) at the Doom studio, which just released an expansion for Doom: The Dark Ages this week.
“My ‘Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand’ statement isn’t aging well,” Carmack wrote on X, “and this is certainly going to dampen the mood of the founder reunion at QuakeCon next month.”
Despite what comes across as disapproval of the layoffs, Carmack stops short of criticizing Microsoft’s decision.
“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.”
Carmack is referring to a recent Bloomberg report that claims profits from Minecraft had been redirected toward less financially successful Xbox studios for the past several years.
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…July 9, 2026
“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.”
He then went on to offer some hypothetical strategies that could have prevented where we’re at now, which is the decimation of the team behind the most critically-acclaimed shooters of the generation.
“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.”
In his own response earlier this week, id Software co-founder John Romero expressed grief for those suddenly out of a job—an ordeal that he can relate to, considering that Xbox cut funding for his studio’s next game this time in 2025.
“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… Romero Games was there a year ago. I know how devastating it is, and my heart’s with all of you.”