QuakeCon 2026 Set for id Software Mourning Amid Xbox Layoff Fallout
QuakeCon will celebrate its 30th anniversary at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from August 6 to 9, but the milestone arrives just weeks after id Software, the studio the convention was built to honour, was hit by a fresh round of Xbox layoffs that has left its ranks thinned to levels not seen in a decade.
A WARN notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission and obtained by Game Developer confirmed that 96 redundancies were made at id Software’s office in Richardson, Texas, with 40 remote workers reporting into that location also let go, indicating 136 roles eliminated in total. Reports elsewhere in the industry have pegged the cut at more than half of the Doom and Quake studio’s headcount.
id Software Confirms Team Shrunk to Doom 2016-Era Size
id Software broke its silence on the cuts in a statement posted to its own social channels and reported by Shacknews. The studio said “while our studio was impacted, those changes were spread across teams,” adding, “we still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we’re known for. The team today is about the same size we were when making DOOM (2016).”
The studio also stressed its long-standing structure would not change, stating it has “always had a flat studio where everyone is a maker, and we will remain true to that philosophy moving forward,” before confirming it still intends to show up for its own anniversary show, adding it is “looking forward to seeing you at QuakeCon this August.”
Read also: id Software: Studio Still Has “Crew We Need” Despite Xbox Layoffs
Carmack Says His Microsoft Endorsement “Isn’t Aging Well”
id co-founder John Carmack, who led programming on the studio’s earliest classics, responded to the layoffs on X in comments picked up by Video Games Chronicle. Carmack wrote that “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.”
Carmack stopped short of directly blaming Microsoft’s leadership for the decision, saying “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.” He went on to reference reporting that Minecraft revenues have been carrying several other studios within Microsoft’s gaming portfolio.
Founders Romero, Carmack, Hall and Adrian Carmack Still Confirmed
Despite the turmoil, Shacknews reports that id’s original founding quartet remain on the guest list for the anniversary weekend, with John Romero, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack all confirmed to be present. Their attendance turns the 30th-anniversary edition into as much a reunion of id Tech’s original architects as a showcase of what remains of the studio’s future output.
Bethesda’s own event page frames the anniversary weekend around its trademark Bring Your Own Computer hall, promising fans tournaments, freeplay, meetups, tabletop gaming, contests and giveaways running around the clock from August 6 to 9 at the Grapevine venue.
id’s Cuts Sit Inside a Wider 3,200-Job Xbox “Reset”
The id Software reductions are part of a far larger restructuring across Microsoft’s gaming division. Variety reported that Xbox Game Studios chief Asha Sharma’s memo confirmed 1,600 Xbox staffers would be laid off in the same week, on top of roughly 4,800 total job cuts announced across parent company Microsoft, with cuts landing unevenly across labels including Bethesda/ZeniMax, Activision, Blizzard, King and Mojang.
Sharma’s memo further warned that up to another 1,250 employees at Xbox could be laid off over the next year, bringing the total to roughly 3,200 projected eliminations across the coming 12 months. Four studios — Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games and Double Fine — are also being spun out or sold as part of the same reset, though id Software itself was not among the divested labels.
What It Signals for Doom, Quake and id Tech’s Future
Shacknews’ coverage of the anniversary weekend noted growing unease among longtime observers that Microsoft could eventually favour Epic’s Unreal Engine over id Tech for future first-party projects, a concern amplified by how thin id’s engineering bench has become. With a skeleton crew now expected to both maintain id Tech and greet thousands of fans at the Gaylord Texan, QuakeCon’s 30th year looks set to double as both a celebration of three decades of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein and a gathering where attendees make their frustration with Xbox’s cost-cutting known in person.
For Australian and New Zealand fans who have followed id’s catalogue for decades through Steam, console storefronts and long-running LAN traditions of their own, the anniversary’s bittersweet framing will register from afar even without a ticket to Texas — a reminder of how directly Microsoft’s corporate restructuring now reaches into franchises with a genuinely global fanbase.
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