id Software layoffs reach 136 workers in Texas WARN filing

id Software’s Texas-linked layoffs now stand at 136 workers, according to a WARN notice obtained by Game Developer. The July 7 update, shared on r/Games, says ZeniMax Media is cutting 158 workers in Texas overall. Of that total, 96 layoffs are tied to id Software’s Richardson office, while another 40 remote workers reported into that location. The remaining 22 cuts are at Bethesda Game Studios’ Austin office.

The filing gives the story harder numbers than the earlier reports that id Software had been heavily reduced during Xbox’s latest restructuring. Game Developer says 146 of the 158 affected Texas workers are represented by the Communication Workers of America. Earlier anonymous sources told the outlet that around half of the Doom: The Dark Ages studio had been laid off, with one source pointing to more than 90 redundancies before the WARN details arrived.

The cuts are part of a larger Xbox reset. Microsoft’s gaming division is preparing 3,200 job eliminations, and Bethesda is reportedly moving away from a studio-by-studio planning model toward a roadmap built around its largest franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. That keeps id Software’s core properties central to the plan, but it also leaves the studio dealing with a major loss of development and QA capacity.

For players, the immediate fact is not a release date or patch note. It is a production change at one of Xbox’s most important shooter studios. The Reddit post framed the update around the confirmed 136-worker count, making the labor impact the main news rather than speculation about unannounced games.