Bethesda Softworks have confirmed that an unknown number of the Rage development team have been laid off. It is a regular practice in the gaming industry for large developers to let go of some talent once a major project has been completed (especially one that has a lackluster reception), but it’s still sad to see people out of a job.
Bethesda, the parent company of id, said in a statement:
As part of its standard business practice, id regularly evaluates staffing to ensure it has a workforce that meets the needs of the studio. As part of that process, some id employees were recently let go.
id software’s next game is the long awaited Doom IV. Prominent members of id software, including John Carmack, have promised that the next entry in the Doom franchise will look at least three times better than last year’s Rage. Fans have speculated that the game will bring the war against the forces of hell to the streets of Earth, in a similar fashion to 1994’s Doom II. We haven’t heard much about Doom IV since its announcement at QuakeCon 2008, hopefully with Rage out the door we’ll hear something later on in the year.
[Source: Joystiq]
