Id Software founder John Carmack mourns layoffs: "Games need to succeed, not just be beloved"

"I have been trying to find something meaningful to say about the Id Software layoffs." It's a sentiment all of us share, but a particularly strong one for its Co-founder John Carmack. A WARN notice filed in Texas states that 136 jobs are being cut at the Doom developer, reportedly more than half of its current workforce, as part of extensive layoffs across Microsoft and Xbox studios. Responding to the news, Carmack writes that he's "saddened, but can't muster anger or outrage over it."

News of the layoffs broke right alongside the launch of new DLC for Id's latest game, Doom: The Dark Ages, turning what should have been cause for celebration into a moment of mourning. "My 'Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand' statement isn't aging well," Carmack admits via X, adding, "this is certainly going to dampen the mood of the founder reunion at QuakeCon next month." He doesn't lay the blame at Microsoft's feet, however, instead discussing the effects of increasing pressure to succeed within the gaming business.

One of the biggest frustrations surrounding the layoffs is the sudden culling of a studio with so much heritage: Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake are the very foundations of FPS games at large. Carmack says that simply isn't enough any more. "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," Carmack explains. "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."

Carmack ponders alternative solutions: might a different pricing strategy have helped Doom to thrive in the crowded modern scene? Should Id have been making things faster, or cheaper, or pushed their products to a wider audience of "players that would have loved and bought the game" with more cost-effective marketing?

Perhaps Doom needed to evolve more, Carmack contemplates. "Could they have changed the game designs and broadened the appeal to more players without alienating existing ones?" Back in 2016, the Doom reboot felt like exactly the breath of fresh air that was needed - the formula was a perfect blend of old and new, retaining the fundamentals that made those '90s classics so beloved and yet simultaneously pushing modern shooters forward.

Doom: The Dark Ages showed fresh willingness from Id to experiment again: its incarnation of the Doom Slayer was slower, more methodical, almost tank-like. It won some hearts, but bounced off of others. The new Revelations DLC was an attempt to strike a balance between the two styles, with Edward praising its "perfect balance" of the distinct styles of The Dark Ages and Doom Eternal. Unfortunately, it arrived too late to have a chance to swing the needle.

Would any of those changes Carmack proposes have turned Id's fortunes around? Would any of them even have been possible in the first place? "I really don't know," he concludes. He isn't writing Id off completely, though: "The game isn't over yet, and I hope the studio rallies through."

Asked whether he would be interested in reclaiming ownership of the Doom IP, Carmack responds that he's sure it's valued "at substantially more than my personal net worth, even if it was just sitting on a shelf for potential future use," and adds that he doesn't believe he would be the right person for the job anyway. He does, however, offer a "$1M guarantee to allow Team Beef to commercialize the legacy open source games on VR."