DOOM creator talks about layoffs: "I've never seen anything like what we're seeing now"

The video game industry is going through an uncertain time: layoffs, multi-million dollar acquisitions of studios that later become independent again, studio closures, cancellations... Sony and Microsoft have been the protagonists in these early stages of 2024 with nearly 3,000 layoffs between them, affecting studios such as Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games and others from Xbox Game Studios. Faced with this, one of the great personalities of the industry has given his opinion on this situation. We are talking about none other than John Romero, the creator of DOOM.

An industry legend on the current situation

“I’ve been in the game industry since I was a kid, and I’ve never seen anything like we’re seeing now,” he said at X. “For many of us, being a game dev is not just a job, but an identity, community, and culture. I am so sorry to everyone who has lost their jobs.” Despite everything, Romero calls for calm and does not believe we will reach a point similar to the 1983 video game crash. “The industry was very small in 1983. It’s not really comparable,” Romero says.

Meanwhile, a user asks him about a hypothetical situation where he had to do layoffs in his DOOM days. “Regarding id, each of us worked the jobs and hours of two people each (at least). We should have hired, if anything,” he said, while offering a message of hope to those who lost their jobs. “The game industry will survive. People play games. We will make the games these people play,” he concludes.

It is not only Sony and Microsoft that have cut staff during January and February 2024. It was Riot Games (League of Legends) that led the way with almost 700 layoffs at Electronic Arts, while independent studios such as Deck Nine (Life is Strange: Before the Storm) or Supermassive Games (Until Dawn) have also been shaken by this negative trend.