In July 2026, id Software lost around 50% of its staff. Reports put the number at 136 workers, cut as part of a layoff of 3,200 across Microsoft’s Xbox division. The Wikipedia entry for the studio words it cautiously, saying the majority of employees were “reputedly” let go.
That is a hard fall for a studio that turned 35 this year. Id was founded on February 1, 1991, by four people from the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, designer Tom Hall and artist Adrian Carmack. It is based in Richardson, Texas.
From a Mario demo to Doom
The origin story is a technical one. In September 1990, Carmack worked out a fast way to side-scroll graphics on a PC. He and Hall stayed up late and rebuilt the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3, swapping in Romero’s Dangerous Dave for Mario. The group, then calling itself Ideas from the Deep, built a bigger demo and sent it to Nintendo. Nintendo, according to Romero, said it was impressive but did not want its intellectual property on anyone else’s hardware.
Scott Miller of Apogee Software had heard of the group by then. Commander Keen came out through Apogee in December 1990 and sold well as shareware. After the first royalty check, three of them decided to start their own company.
Wolfenstein 3D is often considered the first true first-person shooter. Doom popularized the genre and PC gaming in general. Quake was id’s first true 3D shooter. Id built a new engine for most of its titles and then licensed it out, and the company’s work in 3D graphics and engines is used across the industry.
Owners
ZeniMax Media bought id in June 2009. A second studio opened in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2015. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax in March 2021, and id became part of Microsoft Gaming. The Frankfurt studio’s fate in the July layoffs is not stated.
Id marked its 35th anniversary in February 2026, with DOOM: The Dark Ages as its latest release. The studio was due to celebrate the anniversary with a stream featuring Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin. Five months later, half the team was gone.
