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Id Software Developers Describe Brutal Crunch and Layoffs After Revelations DLC

First‑hand accounts raise questions about the studio’s morale and technical capacity following Microsoft’s Xbox restructuring.

Overview

  • Reports published Tuesday and Wednesday quoted former producer Andrew Willis saying the team worked roughly 12‑hour days and hit 17‑hour shifts during a two‑month squeeze to finish the Revelations DLC.
  • Willis said most of the expansion was created in a three to four month burst of work and that some people who shipped the DLC were laid off the day before its release.
  • Microsoft announced a broader Xbox restructuring in July that cut about 3,200 roles and reporting says id Software lost roughly 136 staff and may have forfeited more than half its workforce.
  • Co‑studio director Hugo Martin has pushed back on claims the studio was gutted and says the remaining team is similar in size to the group that made Doom (2016).
  • Coverage highlights immediate human impacts — lost income, damaged morale and the departure of senior engineers — and leaves id Software’s next project and id Tech support uncertain.