id Software hit with layoffs; future projects continue 'unabated'
Bethesda Softworks has confirmed circulating reports that id Software has been hit with a wave of layoffs. It's still unclear how many jobs were affected by the cuts.
Bethesda Softworks has confirmed circulating reports that id Software has been hit with layoffs. It's still unclear how many jobs were affected by the cuts.
Creators of such classic franchises as Doom and Wolfenstein, id Software recently launched Rage--the developer's first new intellectual property since 1996's Quake.
A statement from Bethesda Softworks to Joystiq noted the cuts were "part of its standard business practice, id regularly evaluates staffing to ensure it has a workforce that meets the needs of the studio. As part of that process, some id employees were recently let go."
Bethesda's statement also promised that work on other id Software projects "continues unabated," and that the company is "still recruiting and hiring qualified developers" to work at id Software. The legendary development studio is currently working on the next entry in the Doom series.
We certainly hope those under the knife land on their feet. If you have any additional information regarding this story, please contact Shacknews.
[via @adambromell]
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replyXav de Matos posted a new article, id Software hit with layoffs; future projects continue 'unabated'.
Bethesda Softworks has confirmed circulating reports that id Software has been hit with a wave of layoffs. It's still unclear how many jobs were affected by the cuts.-
I think the majority of those that were laid off were already expecting it, like they said there are usually layoffs at EOP.
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I am sure some people at id were expecting this after the reception of RAGE and the buyout. It still horrible to see a former titan brought down either by management or economy.
I hope Zenimax didn't buyout id just for the IP rights and engine licensing. You would think they would keep id fully staffed to produce in-house engines to replace what ever they are calling their heavily-modified gamebryo.-
Keep in mind they were calling Skyrim's engine "an all-new engine" back in December 2010 when it was revealed. Bethesda's PR department seems to be an expert at smoke and mirrors; Pete Hines is like the Iraqi Information Minister of the video game publishing industry.
As for Id, no word on whether these layoffs were ramping down from Rage's release, but the timing of this announcement is an entire quarter after the release of Rage. Only a couple of weeks after Rage's release there were rumors of "an all-hands meeting" and layoffs; no word on whether these layoffs were from that time, or something different.
No mod tools for Rage released yet; who knows if that's ever going to happen at this point, since that might've been something cut in the middle of the layoffs.-
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There was one patch that I know of; they seem oddly content about the state of the PC version, which is still slightly broken for many people (the main menu is still flickering for me as though it's going into a stereoscopic mode for something, and I'm on an NVidia card). I'm not confident that they'll want to make any more patches at this point, or even push forward with a DLC plan that was already structured a year before release.
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So what, do you have any background in the software industry or are you just talking out of your arse like the rest of the 'expert gamer' crowd around here?
PR is about lying to make you look better, welcome to the real world. With that said, I wouldn't call any of the engines ID produced in the last 10 years or so completely new either. They shouldn't be either. There's always stuff that doesn't grow old and can be migrated to a new project.
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aka "ragequit"? yuk yuk yuk sorry thats bad those are real peoples lives at stake and i shouldnt joke
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Unknown Worlds (developer of Natural Selection 2) just offered a job to former id Software programmers in a tweet http://twitter.com/#!/NS2/statuses/156885759209644033
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Best of luck to everyone that is now looking for work. I know it sucks. Been through it myself more than once.
And if these are people that all worked on Rage, for what it's worth, I thought the game was excellent and really enjoyed it. Too bad about the PC bugs causing such a shit storm. If that hadn't happened the court of public opinion would be much different on this game. -
They have a staff of like 100 folks or so now. They're bound to have a few folks who don't fit in with culture, etc.
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True in part, rage wasn't as good as it should have been, and wow was the ending bad... I was shocked lol. I think we can blame the lure of console cash for it not being up to typical id standards. I for one still have bucket loads of faith in id to make plenty more legendary games though. Doom 4 should be something special, I hope.
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? doom3 was amazing. rage was terrible atmosphere and gameplay wise. nice engine tho
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For a company that sold specifically so they could be large multi-project team this is not "standard business practice" this is failure.
id software doesn't "layoff" people. People are fired/quit. But then again id software doesn't exist anymore does it? It is just another studio with employees instead of foudners/partners. Employees are expendable, founders/partners are not, as evidence of every games since Quake 3.
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On a side note... I finally started getting into Rage lately (now that my Dark Souls addiction is about over) and I just fail to see what is wrong with this game. What exactly is wrong with it? Because... to me it's a gorgeous and fun shooter with amazingly solid feeling weapons and pretty impressive environments. I'm just not seeing the problem here.
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