{"id":2047911,"date":"2026-07-17T10:35:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T07:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047911"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T07:35:48","slug":"no-doom-maker-id-software-hasnt-been-nerfed-into-the-ground-and-gutted-by-the-xbox-cuts-insists-director-hugo-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2047911","title":{"rendered":"No, Doom maker id Software hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;nerfed into the ground and gutted&#8221; by the Xbox cuts, insists director Hugo Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">No, Doom maker id Software hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;nerfed into the ground and gutted&#8221; by the Xbox cuts, insists director Hugo Martin<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;That&#8217;s not true.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/DOOM-SITE_5fKgryC-(1).jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"doom slayer stands with a shield in a drawn style in front of a flying demon\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"DOOM-SITE_5fKgryC-(1).jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>id Software<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-07-17T10:35:48+00:00\">July 17, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"a94a0135-5e03-4306-9cfb-3f59f6076d89\" data-name=\"DOOM (2016)\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Doom (2016)\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Doom (2016)\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Doom (2016)\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Doom (2016)\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Doom (2016)\" title=\"Follow Doom (2016)\"><br \/>\n  Follow Doom (2016)<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Doom and Quake creator id Software insists it hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;nerfed into the ground and gutted&#8221; by Xbox, despite reports to the contrary.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/doom-quake-studio-id-software-gutted-xbox-cuts-game-ideas?fbclid=IwY2xjawTGz51leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF1QXJTeE5KM1U4ZThISUZHc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrveSxkHoCbFtZrpBNbf7Xug2XeTa6lFdapL1AumXeBEYAeQOMxB4TlrEuRq_aem_Ps9CUaaxCx48N0zqskdyOQ\">Legal documents suggested id Software lost nearly three quarters of its 185-person staff<\/a> in the layoffs, reducing the workforce to 49 people &#8211; a move people who worked there referred to as &#8220;a bloodbath&#8221;. This prompted the suggestion id Software would become a support studio for Xbox rather than one capable of making full-scale games of its own. With so many id Tech engineers also apparently being laid off, fears for the studio&#8217;s famous proprietary engine emerged, too.<\/p>\n<p>But according to co-studio director Hugo Martin, those reports and fears are overblown. &#8220;There&#8217;s been reports that we&#8217;ve been nerfed into the ground and gutted and we have 50 people, and that&#8217;s not true,&#8221; Martin said on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XDHo1QYYElg\">a Bethesda-hosted Doom livestream<\/a> yesterday. &#8220;We&#8217;re the size we were when we made Doom 2016, and id Tech is very much alive and well.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations - Official Reveal Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2026\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bvjwvv0vxL0?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/Bvjwvv0vxL0\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations &#8211; Official Reveal Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Bvjwvv0vxL0\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;You have to understand we have id Tech engineers both in Frankfurt and at MachineGames &#8211; we collaborate quite a bit. So id Tech is there, the Doom team is here, and we&#8217;re excited to share with you guys more of what we&#8217;re working on in the future when it is appropriate and approved.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/id-software-can-still-build-games\">A similar sentiment was shared by the id Software social account<\/a> recently, when the studio insisted &#8220;we still have the crew we need to build the games&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/78860\/doom\/credits\/windows\/\">Approximately 75 people are credited as working on Doom 2016<\/a> at id Software, but it&#8217;s worth underlining how long ago that game was made, and how much grander the Doom games have become since. As development budgets balloon and staff numbers with them, could a similar sized team make a Doom that meets expectations in 2026 and beyond?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, there&#8217;s now a sliver of hope. &#8220;The door is open to be able to &#8211; I would love to be able to complete [the Doom origin] story all the way up to the sarcophagus,&#8221; Martin remarked during the livestream. The sarcophagus he&#8217;s referring to is the one at the beginning of Doom 2016, which the Doom Slayer is lying on and &#8216;wakes up&#8217; on. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/doom-the-dark-ages\">Doom: The Dark Ages<\/a> took us back to the origins of the Doom Slayer, so Martin&#8217;s hope is id Software can link the timelines together.<\/p>\n<p>The Doom livestream was recorded in honour of the recent Revelations expansion, which was released last week for Doom: The Dark Ages. It injects a lot more movement and speed into the game, making it feel more like Doom Eternal. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/doom-the-dark-ages-revelations-spear-reactions\">Central to this is a new Chain Spear melee weapon<\/a>, which can be upgraded and customised in myriad ways, in some cases drastically changing what you can do.<\/p>\n<p>Id Software was one of many studios impacted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-2026-double-fine-compulsion-ninja-theory\">Microsoft&#8217;s wide-reaching Xbox cuts<\/a>, which, it&#8217;s worth pointing out, are still underway. 1,600 jobs have already been already, a handful of studios have broken away from Xbox, but there are still 1,600 layoffs to come, sometime between now and next summer. It&#8217;s a bout of restructuring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-cuts-report-staggering-loss-fear\">that&#8217;s left the Xbox division reeling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Doom and Quake creator id Software insists it hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;nerfed into the ground and gutted&#8221; by Xbox, despite reports to the contrary.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/doom-quake-studio-id-software-gutted-xbox-cuts-game-ideas?fbclid=IwY2xjawTGz51leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF1QXJTeE5KM1U4ZThISUZHc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrveSxkHoCbFtZrpBNbf7Xug2XeTa6lFdapL1AumXeBEYAeQOMxB4TlrEuRq_aem_Ps9CUaaxCx48N0zqskdyOQ\">Legal documents suggested id Software lost nearly three quarters of its 185-person staff<\/a> in the layoffs, reducing the workforce to 49 people &#8211; a move people who worked there referred to as &#8220;a bloodbath&#8221;. This prompted the suggestion id Software would become a support studio for Xbox rather than one capable of making full-scale games of its own. With so many id Tech engineers also apparently being laid off, fears for the studio&#8217;s famous proprietary engine emerged, too.<\/p>\n<p>But according to co-studio director Hugo Martin, those reports and fears are overblown. &#8220;There&#8217;s been reports that we&#8217;ve been nerfed into the ground and gutted and we have 50 people, and that&#8217;s not true,&#8221; Martin said on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XDHo1QYYElg\">a Bethesda-hosted Doom livestream<\/a> yesterday. &#8220;We&#8217;re the size we were when we made Doom 2016, and id Tech is very much alive and well.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations - Official Reveal Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2026\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bvjwvv0vxL0?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/Bvjwvv0vxL0\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations &#8211; Official Reveal Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Bvjwvv0vxL0\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;You have to understand we have id Tech engineers both in Frankfurt and at MachineGames &#8211; we collaborate quite a bit. So id Tech is there, the Doom team is here, and we&#8217;re excited to share with you guys more of what we&#8217;re working on in the future when it is appropriate and approved.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/id-software-can-still-build-games\">A similar sentiment was shared by the id Software social account<\/a> recently, when the studio insisted &#8220;we still have the crew we need to build the games&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/78860\/doom\/credits\/windows\/\">Approximately 75 people are credited as working on Doom 2016<\/a> at id Software, but it&#8217;s worth underlining how long ago that game was made, and how much grander the Doom games have become since. As development budgets balloon and staff numbers with them, could a similar sized team make a Doom that meets expectations in 2026 and beyond?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, there&#8217;s now a sliver of hope. &#8220;The door is open to be able to &#8211; I would love to be able to complete [the Doom origin] story all the way up to the sarcophagus,&#8221; Martin remarked during the livestream. The sarcophagus he&#8217;s referring to is the one at the beginning of Doom 2016, which the Doom Slayer is lying on and &#8216;wakes up&#8217; on. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/doom-the-dark-ages\">Doom: The Dark Ages<\/a> took us back to the origins of the Doom Slayer, so Martin&#8217;s hope is id Software can link the timelines together.<\/p>\n<p>The Doom livestream was recorded in honour of the recent Revelations expansion, which was released last week for Doom: The Dark Ages. It injects a lot more movement and speed into the game, making it feel more like Doom Eternal. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/doom-the-dark-ages-revelations-spear-reactions\">Central to this is a new Chain Spear melee weapon<\/a>, which can be upgraded and customised in myriad ways, in some cases drastically changing what you can do.<\/p>\n<p>Id Software was one of many studios impacted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-2026-double-fine-compulsion-ninja-theory\">Microsoft&#8217;s wide-reaching Xbox cuts<\/a>, which, it&#8217;s worth pointing out, are still underway. 1,600 jobs have already been already, a handful of studios have broken away from Xbox, but there are still 1,600 layoffs to come, sometime between now and next summer. It&#8217;s a bout of restructuring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/xbox-cuts-report-staggering-loss-fear\">that&#8217;s left the Xbox division reeling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News No, Doom maker id Software hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;nerfed into the ground and gutted&#8221; by the Xbox cuts, insists director Hugo Martin &#8220;That&#8217;s not true.&#8221; Image credit: id Software News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on July 17, 2026 Follow Doom (2016) Doom and Quake creator id Software insists it hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;nerfed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2047911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2047911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2047911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2047911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2047911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}