id Software says it's working more closely with MachineGames than ever after losing about half its studio

id Software says it’s leaning harder on its sister studio. Speaking at a press event for Doom: The Dark Ages’ Revelations DLC, id co-director Marty Stratton said the Doom studio is “working more closely with MachineGames than ever,” per PC Gamer, which cites IGN’s report from the event.

”About half of our studio”

Stratton didn’t dodge the layoffs. “We’re doing great,” he said. “Not to handwave the [layoffs] away … everybody knows we had about half of our studio exit as part of that. 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 [the] technology department.”

Kotaku notes that the cuts raised questions about what the studio can still take on, and that id has previously said it’s now about the size it was when it shipped Doom (2016).

The MachineGames partnership

MachineGames, the Bethesda studio behind Wolfenstein: The New Order and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, builds its games on id’s id Tech engine. Stratton framed the closer relationship around technology:

“We’ve always had a very close partnership with them, but I think we’re at the 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]. We’d kicked this off earlier this year. We’re really excited about that. We’re both really, really bullish on what we have ahead.”

No joint game was announced. PC Gamer points out that the comments have fed speculation about a rumored Wolfenstein 3, but neither studio has said anything about one.

PPR take: Losing half a studio and saying you’re “doing great” is a tough sell, but if id Tech keeps moving forward with both teams’ engineers on it, that’s the part that matters most for future Doom and Wolfenstein games.