Former id Software Veterans Form Hidden Horses After Microsoft Layoffs
About 20 former id Software developers announced the founding of a new independent studio, Hidden Horses, on November 11, 2026, and released a documentary video about the circumstances behind it.
3 sources 1d ago
Reporting from 3 sources: 4Gamer.net, Automaton, Game Spark.
Why it matters
The founders are building Hidden Horses as an employee-owned studio where staff hold equal shares and management decisions are made democratically, a structure the cluster presents as a deliberate break from the corporate ownership that presided over the layoffs.
Key Facts
- Texas state documents put the id Software layoffs at 136 people, 96 at the Richardson headquarters and 40 remote workers.
- The Hidden Horses founding members' combined game industry experience exceeds 250 years.
- Hidden Horses' first project is Danger Pay, a single-player arena FPS, with a Kickstarter campaign planned.
The founders are veterans who lost their jobs in the Microsoft layoffs of July 6, 2026, which cut roughly 4,800 positions company-wide. Texas state documents cited by 4Gamer.net put the id Software dismissals at 136 people, 96 at the Richardson headquarters and 40 remote workers attached to that site, more than half the studio's staff at the time. The group includes engine programmer Dustin Land, lead VFX artist Todd Boyce, AI engineer Daniel Young, executive producer Andrew Willis, former tools programmer Johnmichael Quinlan and technical designer Jordan Turner. The studio's first project is Danger Pay, a single-player arena FPS set in a deadly game show with an evil AI host, and a Kickstarter campaign is planned to fund part of development.
The founding group's combined industry experience is put at more than 250 years, and many members worked at the same development site for over a decade. The layoffs also removed programmers who had maintained id Software's proprietary id Tech engine, which 4Gamer.net describes as the loss of technology and know-how built up over many years.
In the documentary, Quinlan says the timing of the dismissals, just before the release of the DOOM: The Dark Ages DLC, felt like an attack on id Software. Turner calls it one of the hardest days of his life. Willis, the executive producer, says the team should have a stake in what it builds, and shares are distributed equally among the developers rather than sold to outside investors. Land frames the studio as a way to keep the same colleagues together and make the old-school shooters they want to play.
Danger Pay draws on the 1987 film The Running Man and the arcade game Smash TV. The Kickstarter page is already listed as launching soon, and the studio opened an official website, a Discord server and a YouTube documentary alongside the announcement.
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.
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