id Software, the Texas studio behind Doom, is reportedly cutting around 50 percent of its staff as part of Microsoft layoffs concentrated in Xbox. Game Developer first reported the cuts, citing multiple anonymous sources, and former id Software staffer Michael Maynard echoed the 50 percent figure in a LinkedIn post. Per at least one of Game Developer’s sources, the move could translate to around 90 job cuts.
Neither Microsoft nor id Software has formally acknowledged the layoffs. The cuts land on a studio whose roughly 185-person workforce voted in 2025 to unionize wall-to-wall under the Communications Workers of America, joining CWA Local 6215, a unit Microsoft recognized immediately under a labor neutrality agreement signed in 2022. That bargaining unit has yet to reach a first contract with Microsoft. With the layoffs arriving before any deal is signed, the CWA is now preparing to demand severance, recall rights, and internal placement on behalf of the affected workers.
The Reported Cuts at id Software
id Software is laying off around 50 percent of its staff, according to multiple anonymous sources who spoke to Game Developer, the trade publication owned by Informa. The reported cut could affect around 90 employees, per at least one of those sources, though it is unclear which departments are being hit hardest.
Former id Software staffer Michael Maynard, who has spoken publicly about the cuts, wrote on LinkedIn that it was ‘really sad’ to see id Software treated as ‘just another reorganization of assets’ in the broader Microsoft shakeup. Microsoft has not yet responded to a request for comment, per the first report on the id Software cuts. id Software, the studio best known for creating the Doom and Quake franchises, sits inside ZeniMax Media, the Bethesda parent that Microsoft acquired in 2021. The reported id Software cuts are part of a broader Microsoft restructuring the company announced on Monday, primarily focused on Xbox and its game studios. The cuts span at least three ZeniMax studios, according to the CWA’s statement, with ‘hundreds of union video game workers represented by the Communications Workers of America’ across the Xbox division.
The full scope of the cuts across id Software’s departments has not been disclosed. id Software, the studio that built the modern first-person shooter, has around 185 employees in total per the 2025 unionization vote tally, putting the reported 90 affected jobs at roughly half. The cuts come as Microsoft is preparing a major reset of its gaming division.
- 50% of id Software staff reportedly being cut
- ~90 jobs at stake at id Software
- 1,600 Microsoft roles eliminated in the first wave
- 1,600 more Microsoft layoffs planned in coming months
- 165 workers in the id Software CWA bargaining unit
- 3,500+ workers unionized with CWA at Xbox since 2022
How the Cuts Fit the Xbox Reset
Microsoft’s Xbox restructuring is the largest in years, with the company eliminating 1,600 roles alongside the announcement that Xbox is being reorganized. Microsoft has said it plans to lay off another 1,600 employees over the coming months, putting the total at up to 3,200 positions. id Software is not alone inside ZeniMax. The same day, Bethesda President Jill Braff wrote to staff acknowledging the cuts, and a Kotaku report cited in the Bethesda and ZeniMax Online layoff coverage found that as much as half of the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online was let go.
ZeniMax Online Studios, the developer of that long-running MMO, is also unionized with the CWA. The CWA’s own statement on the layoffs named id Software, Bethesda Game Studios, and ZeniMax Online Studios as the studios ‘decimated’ by the cuts. Bloomberg reported on the day of the layoffs that ZeniMax Media will refocus on its biggest franchises, including The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, and Doom, going forward. id Software, on paper, was already centered on Doom: the studio launched Doom: The Dark Ages in 2025 and shipped an expansion to the game on July 7, 2026, one day before the layoffs were reported. Braff’s email to Bethesda staff said the company needs to ‘change course’ and ‘focus on our strongest franchises,’ and the narrowing is now playing out at id Software, too, with the studio reportedly losing half its staff in the cuts.
A Wall-to-Wall Union With No First Contract
id Software workers voted in 2025 to form a wall-to-wall union, the kind that covers every department rather than a single job family. The CWA said 165 workers voted yes, and gamesindustry.biz, citing a report from Aftermath, said the bargaining unit was drawn from a total of around 185 employees.
The unit is CWA Local 6215, with members across the studio’s departments. Microsoft recognized the union immediately, because the company signed a labor neutrality agreement with the CWA in June 2022 that commits Microsoft to voluntary recognition when a majority of workers sign union cards. That agreement covers ZeniMax studios and other Microsoft gaming properties, and it has produced a string of union recognitions since.
The catch: recognition is not a contract. A wall-to-wall union without a first contract has no negotiated severance terms, no formal recall rights, and no laid-off worker protections beyond what state and federal law provide. The id Software workers who organized in 2025 are now absorbing the cuts before any severance, recall, or placement rules have been negotiated. The CWA is the one now negotiating the substance of those protections after the fact, with no deal in place to anchor the talks. The cuts land on a studio that won wall-to-wall recognition in 2025 and is now cutting half its staff.
The id Software recognition was the latest in a string of union formations at Microsoft gaming studios since the 2022 neutrality deal. Across Microsoft’s gaming division, more than 3,500 workers have chosen to form unions with the CWA since 2022, according to the union. The pace has accelerated, not slowed, even as Microsoft has cut headcount.
| Date | Microsoft gaming studio or team | CWA union status |
|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | Microsoft (gaming division) | Labor neutrality agreement signed |
| July 2024 | Bethesda Game Studios | ~250 staff unionize |
| December 2024 | ZeniMax Online Studios | Union formed |
| 2025 | id Software | CWA Local 6215, wall-to-wall (165 of ~185) |
| 2025 | Blizzard story/franchise dev, Diablo, Hearthstone/Warcraft Rumble | Unions formed |
| 2025 | Raven Software | First CBA secured with Microsoft |
How the id Software Workers Voted to Organize
When id Software workers voted to unionize, they framed the choice as a defense against unilateral change in the games industry. Andrew Willis, an id Software producer and member of the CWA Local 6215 organizing committee, said in the 2025 id Software union vote coverage that the wall-to-wall effort was ‘much needed’ to push back on workplace changes ‘being handed down from industry executives.’
Senior VFX artist Caroline Pierrot, also on the organizing committee, said unions give developers ‘a real shot at shaping the future of the industry for the better.’ Those decisions came against a backdrop of mounting layoffs across Microsoft Gaming and the wider industry, where studios have been hit by wave after wave of cuts over the past two years. id Software’s union vote in 2025 was preceded by similar votes at Bethesda Game Studios in July 2024, where nearly 250 staff unionized, and at ZeniMax Online Studios in December 2024. The organizing push is the labor response to a consolidation wave that has now reached the studio that kicked off the modern first-person shooter. The id Software recognition came with the studio’s leadership already working on Doom: The Dark Ages, the May 2025 release that has anchored the studio’s output for the past year. Other Microsoft gaming studios have continued to organize in parallel, including Blizzard’s story and franchise development team and the studio working on Diablo.
That is the context for the current layoffs, and the reason the cuts land where they do. id Software’s union was built to give workers a seat at the table, and with no contract, the seat is empty when the cuts are announced. The CWA’s bargaining power now comes from the size of the broader Microsoft-CWA map and from the public pressure of a layoff round one day after a Doom expansion shipped. For the workers, the choice in 2025 to organize wall-to-wall was a decision to seek union protection against unilateral change. The change has come, and the contract is not in place, and the workers are now absorbing it without the protections a contract would have set.
CWA Outlines Its Severance and Recall Demands
The CWA’s response to the layoffs came the same day the cuts were reported, in a statement that named the specific areas where the union plans to demand bargaining, per the union’s response to the Xbox layoffs. CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said Microsoft ‘has slow-walked our members at the bargaining table, making CWA members wait for the protections of a union contract,’ and the union said it will press for fair severance for the affected workers.
CWA Vice President Mike Davis, who oversees CWA District 2-13, said the union will ‘demand immediate bargaining’ on the affected workers’ behalf, and CWA Canada President Carmel Smyth said ‘these workers put their hearts and souls into creating best selling video games people around the world loved’ and called on Microsoft to recognize their ‘talent and dedication to excellence.’ The demands the CWA plans to bring to the table fall into four categories, each one a typical subject of a collective bargaining agreement. A union contract, had one been in place, would have set these rules in advance, and the CWA is now demanding they be negotiated after the fact.
- Fair severance for laid-off union members
- The right to bargain over vendor-contract decisions
- Internal placement so qualified employees can move into open roles
- Recall rights if the laid-off positions are reinstated
The Microsoft-CWA Neutrality Deal Since 2022
Microsoft’s June 2022 labor neutrality agreement with the CWA is the engine behind the recent wave of recognitions. The agreement commits Microsoft to voluntary recognition when a majority of workers at a given studio sign union cards, and to remain neutral during organizing drives. Since then, unions have formed at Blizzard’s story and franchise development team, at the studio working on Diablo, and at the Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble teams, per gamesindustry.biz’s reporting. Activision user researchers unionized, and Raven Software secured a collective bargaining agreement with Microsoft three years after starting its unionization process. The pattern has been steady recognition followed by slow, sometimes multi-year, contract negotiations.
For id Software, the result is union recognition without a contract in place, and a 50 percent staff cut reported before any deal is signed. The CWA’s Cummings framed the moment in stark terms in the statement on the layoffs, writing that ‘when Microsoft decides to treat the workers who built Xbox as expendable, it should know who they’re dealing with.’ CWA District 6 Vice President Derrick Osobase went further, tying the cuts to Microsoft’s own revenue model.
Today’s layoffs decimated the teams at id Software, Bethesda Game Studios, and ZeniMax Online Studios, legendary studios whose employees brought us games like Doom, Quake, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout.
Derrick Osobase, Vice President of CWA District 6, in the CWA’s statement on the Xbox layoffs.
No Acknowledgment as Microsoft Plans More Layoffs
Microsoft has not publicly responded to the id Software layoff reports, the CWA’s demands, or questions about which departments at id Software are affected. The cuts land one day after id Software shipped an expansion to Doom: The Dark Ages, the studio’s flagship release.
Microsoft has said the cuts are not finished, with another 1,600 positions set to be eliminated in the months ahead. The broader Microsoft layoff context, including the AI spending angle, is detailed in the parent story of Microsoft’s broader layoffs. Further rounds at ZeniMax studios are not yet confirmed. The CWA is preparing to translate the layoffs into a bargaining claim Microsoft has to answer, and Cummings has said the union would ‘take all necessary legal and contractual action’ to defend its members. The CWA’s bargaining demand and Microsoft’s next round of cuts are both pending in the months ahead.
