When Microsoft’s mass layoffs gutted Doom developers id Software earlier this week, the studio were reportedly kicking around a number of ideas for games they could work on after finishing Doom: The Dark Ages’ Revelations DLC. Among these pitches, it’s claimed, were the likes of a new Perfect Dark game and an original gun fu game inspired by John Wick.
That’s according to a new report from Gamesbeat, which delves into the behind-the-scenes devastation which has come with id losing a total of 136 workers as part of Microsoft’s cuts this week.
The report claims that, with the Revelations DLC relasing on July 7th, id were considering pitches for their next game when the axe fell. One was a new Perfect Dark entry, with no other Microsoft studios working on the series following the corp’s decision to shutter The Initiative last year. Concept art for that game was said to be in the works.
Another option was the John Wick-inspired game, codenamed Fury. This one was reportedly the brainchild of Doom: The Dark Ages director Hugo Martin, and would have blended gunplay with martial arts in a sci-fi noir-ish world featuring gangsters from Chicago and Louisiana. According to Gamesbeat, it hadn’t been greenlit as of the cuts. Ironwood, which sounds like it’d have been a wild west robot survival game with Westworldy vibes, was another pitch reportedly floating around.
Finally, on the Doom front, multiplayer Doom, co-op Doom and more Doom DLCs were reportedly on the table, potentially bringing back some beloved armaments from previous modern entries. For what it’s worth, a report from Bloomberg earlier this week claimed the cuts weren’t a death knell for Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein as game series.
Gamesbeat note that it’s unclear if id have enough people left to be able to make any of these games following the layoffs, or if they’ll simply be a support studio. “I’m not convinced there is a viable way forward,” one laid-off id worker told the site. “It feels like a bunch of knee-jerk responses.”
One Xbox-owned studio that reportedly have been given a future direction already are Avowed developers Obsidian, who’ve been put back to work on Fallout.
