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One of the biggest news stories in gaming at the moment is Xbox's brutal restructuring.
This is a process that has seen at least four studios depart the Microsoft-owned outfit, as Xbox's Asha Sharma announces plans to cut "3,200 roles" throughout fiscal year 27 — 1,600 of which were carried out earlier this week.
Right now, details are still emerging about exactly who has been affected and how hard, with id Software reportedly being among those hit (as evidenced by a social media post from Apogee's Scott Miller, updates from departing staff, and new reports from journalists including Game Developer senior editor Chris Kerr).
As a result, John Romero, the company's co-founder (who left the DOOM & Quake studio back in 1996), has offered words of support to those who have been caught up in the layoffs, praising them for doing a great job in "moving" id's legacy forward, and stating "my heart's with all of you."
"I’m so sorry for everyone at id Software affected by these layoffs," Romero wrote. "I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It’s a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history."
He continued, "The people at id have done a great job moving that legacy forward. DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today’s industry. The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people."
A huge supporter of game preservation, Romero also took the opportunity in his statement to highlight the importance of preserving the company's history.
He hopes that, amid all this uncertainty and disruption, someone is making the effort to record the legacy these workers helped build, just as he did back in the days of the studio's origins:
"id's history is critically important to the history of games. I’ve preserved id’s complete early history from our start at Softdisk through to August 6, 1996, including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has. I hope someone is doing the same for the company’s ongoing legacy (the work, code, assets, stories and the people behind them)."
In a final message, he likened the situation to what Romero Games went through last year, when an unnamed company (assumed to be Microsoft) pulled funding from its new FPS, leading the studio to lay off an unspecified number of staff to survive.
He wrote, "I’m thinking of everyone at id today, and everyone else affected by yesterday’s layoffs... I know how devastating it is, and my heart's with all of you."