id Software and MachineGames Strengthen Collaboration Amid Staff Cuts

id Software co-director Marty Stratton has revealed that the DOOM development team is collaborating with MachineGames “more closely than ever.” This comes after approximately half of id Software’s workforce departed during the recent workforce reductions associated with Xbox’s “reset” restructuring.

Stratton shared these details during a media event in the final week of October, which focused on Revelations, the DLC expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages released by id Software in summer 2026. He explained that roughly 50% of the studio's employees left during the organizational changes led under Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Following the departures, the studio's management took specific steps to maintain its operational stability and ensure its development capabilities remained strong.

“We’re doing great. Not to handwave the [layoffs] away…everybody knows we had about half of our studio exit as part of that,” Stratton said. “But there was a very deliberate effort to make sure that we were incredibly viable coming out of that across everything we do, across game development and technology department.”

A Partnership That Started Before the Layoffs

Stratton clarified that the growing relationship between id Software and MachineGames was not established simply to compensate for the reduction in staff. According to him, discussions and collaborative development efforts between the two studios had already begun in early 2026, several months before the workforce changes took place.

“We’re working more closely with MachineGames than ever. We’ve always had a very close partnership with them, but I think we’re at a point with technology development that both teams are incredibly talented and have incredibly talented engineers and we’re really on an amazing path that had started pre-[layoffs],” Stratton said. “We’re really excited about that. We’re both really really bullish on what we have ahead.”

The partnership makes technical sense because MachineGames has consistently relied on id Software's proprietary idTech engine to develop its titles. This shared technology provides a strong foundation for cooperation between the two development teams. Both studios operate under Bethesda within Xbox's gaming division. Meanwhile, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has expressed interest in concentrating development resources on the company's most important gaming franchises, an approach also supported by Bethesda executive Jill Braff.

What Comes Next for id Software?

Following the release of the Revelations DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages, id Software appears to have wrapped up its current work on the game. However, the studio has yet to officially reveal what it plans to develop next, leaving its upcoming project a mystery.

MachineGames, meanwhile, is widely rumored to be developing Wolfenstein 3. However, no official announcement has confirmed this project. Studio director Jerk Gustafsson has previously indicated that the team still has plans for the Wolfenstein franchise, stating that they are “not done with Wolfenstein yet.” At present, neither MachineGames nor Xbox has confirmed whether the two studios will jointly work on the rumored sequel.