Doom developer id Software is one of the studios under Xbox that has suffered mightily from Microsoft’s “reset” layoffs, losing over half its staff and several bright ideas as a result.
id Software was thinking about making a perfect dark game
Xbox’s recent round of mass layoffs has been perhaps the company’s worst one yet. It’s forced a number of first party teams, like Double Fine and Compulsion Games, to spin off independently, and several more have either secured buyouts from other companies or, like in Arkane Lyon’s case, are actively seeking new ownership to avoid being closed down.
Doom: The Dark Ages studio id Software has managed to keep its doors open, but at the cost of losing more than half its staff, and on the day its Doom: The Dark Ages Revelations DLC went live, no less. Revelations has received critical praise, and fans have been deeply enjoying its new spear-based action, leaving many scratching their heads at Xbox’s decision to effectively cut id Software in half. The studio is now left with fewer than 100 developers under its roof.
Id also had an idea for a john wick-style action game
As reported by GamesBeat, id Software had several very interesting game ideas floating around that likely will never see the light of day now that the studio has lost so much of its staff. One of these ideas is quite surprising: a Perfect Dark game.
Fans of Xbox are quite familiar with the concept of a Perfect Dark project not working out. Xbox formed a new studio in 2018 called The Initiative, tasking them with rebooting its long-dormant Perfect Dark series with a new entry. After years of turbulence at the studio, and after finally showing off an exciting new trailer in June 2024, both The Initiative and its Perfect Dark reboot were shut down by Xbox, greatly disappointing Xbox fans who thought Perfect Dark could once again become a premier Xbox franchise. After this happened, id Software reportedly became interested in taking Perfect Dark into its own hands, going so far as to begin creating concept art for a new game.
Id Software, which had mostly been working on its incredible Doom reboot trilogy since 2016, had several other fresh new ideas gestating before this round of layoffs struck. One of them was a game known as “Fury,” a John Wick-inspired first-person gun-fu action game set in a world that blends cyberpunk with old-school Chicago gangsters. It was Doom reboot director Hugo Martin’s brainchild, and while he still remains at the studio, id Software may no longer have the team size or the go-ahead from Xbox to see such an idea through. The same could be said for another of the studio’s ideas in “Ironwood,” a game featuring robots with a western flair.
It would’ve certainly been interesting to see id Software tackle a Perfect Dark game, and any of these ideas would’ve been a nice break from Doom, as great as the trilogy has been. The future of the studio is an uncertain one, as many fear it becoming a support studio of sorts for other Bethesda and Xbox projects. Its proprietary idTech engine, which fueled the Doom reboot games, has been the topic of much discussion too, as many of the important minds that work on the engine at id were also swept up in the cuts.