id Software Confirms Its Next Game After Layoffs

id Software is making another game. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said so on X today while marking the original Xbox’s 25th anniversary, and the Doom studio replied within minutes to confirm it, with Hugo Martin back as game director.

https://x.com/idSoftware/status/2120970306227495319

What was said

Sharma’s post praised id as one of the studios that shaped the first-person shooter, mentioned that Slaughter Mode arrives in DOOM: The Dark Ages on Monday, and added that the team is already working on its next game.

id’s reply filled in a little more. The new project comes from its teams in Texas and Frankfurt, Hugo Martin is directing again, and fans should not hold their breath: “It’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more.”

Is it Doom?

id has not said. The Verge’s Tom Warren, who reported back in July that id was in the early stages of a new Doom game, says this confirms it, as Nintendo Life reports. Until id or Bethesda say the word, treat the Doom part as very likely but not official. No title, platforms or release date have been announced.

The layoffs

The timing is awkward. id was hit hard in July’s Xbox cuts, reportedly losing more than 130 staff, about half the studio, and some former developers said it would be left as a support studio. id said at the time its team was about the same size as when it made DOOM (2016), and PC Gamer reports that studio co-director Marty Stratton said in October that care was taken to keep id viable.

Some of the people who left are not waiting around. Earlier today a group of id veterans launched their own employee-owned studio, Hidden Horses, with a game show shooter on the way.

In the meantime

Doom fans have something to play on Monday. Slaughter Mode, a horde mode with escalating rounds of random encounters, bosses and arenas, lands in DOOM: The Dark Ages on 16 November as part of the Revelations expansion.

Our take

Good news, with an asterisk. id has been the heart of the FPS since Wolfenstein 3D, and it is a relief to hear it is still a studio making its own games rather than helping out on everyone else’s. But the new game is being made by a much smaller team than the last one, and the people who were let go are now building their own shooter down the road. We will be rooting for both. What do you want from id next: more Doom, or a proper new Quake?