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With the Xbox layoffs dominating the headlines this week, it's no surprise that we've been seeing countless stories, reports, rumours and speculation about the state of Xbox's game studios as we head into the second half of 2026.
DOOM: The Dark Ages developer id Software is one company that's been in the news a lot, with reports suggesting that the studio has been cut in half as a result of said layoffs. However, there have also been rumours claiming that just one person was left working on id Tech, and Xbox has actually stepped in to address this.
Simply put, Xbox says that id Tech has "dozens" of people working on it right now, and they're spread across multiple locations. Here's a look at the statement that was sent to Kotaku and Windows Central:
"There are dozens of people working on id Tech across multiple locations. Reports that there’s only one person left in Texas are inaccurate."
If you're questioning what "id Tech" even is, don't worry - it's not immediately obvious! This is the term for the game engine that was designed by id Software technically back in the '90s (then known as the Quake Engine), and it's received many different iterations since then, most recently being used for the likes of DOOM: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
There's been some concern that Microsoft might encourage id Software to ditch id Tech and transition to Unreal Engine instead, but the new statement suggests that might not be the case, at least for the time being.
That said, Kotaku's report highlights the "devastating" scale of the cuts at the studio along with a source that feared "id Tech as a technology is probably dead forever", with the team "in charge" of id Tech said to have been let go this week. There's a belief that MachineGames is already using a branch of it for Wolfenstein 3, however.
Meanwhile, Windows Central's Jez Corden says that, according to his sources, Microsoft doesn't have any plans to push id Software or MachineGames over to Unreal Engine right now, and he believes it would be "miserably short-sighted" and "fiscally irresponsible" to do so.
"Handing even more power to Unreal Engine opens them up to monopolistic price increases down the line, which would be fiscally irresponsible. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma herself said in her memo to staff that she wants Microsoft to rely less on vendors for things like this. As such, I would argue that Microsoft should invest more in id Tech, not less."
Whatever the case may be for the future, Xbox clearly wanted to step in and address that id Tech is being used by "dozens" of people right now, and it remains to be seen where it goes from here.