Things continue to be incredibly confusing over at id Software as more reports roll in about the future of the legendary Doom studio.

Just recently, I covered claims that id Software had apparently been considering several new ventures prior to Xbox’s brutal layoffs, including a new Perfect Dark game, more Doom, and even an original John Wick-style first-person action game. Now, fresh reporting is raising even bigger questions about what future id Software actually has left, particularly when it comes to id Tech, the proprietary engine that has powered multiple Doom games, as well as the Wolfenstein series.

According to a new report from Kotaku, id Software’s engine team has been so badly hit that there may now be only one person left at the studio who properly understands and can work on id Tech.

Thanks to Texas WARN documentation, we know that id Software was hit with 96 layoffs at its Richardson, Texas office, plus another 40 remote workers who reported to the studio. The studio had roughly 185 employees at the end of last year, meaning Xbox appears to have gutted a huge chunk of one of its most technically important teams.

“Key positions were cut and entire teams were decimated,” three sources apparently told Kotaku. Most importantly, that reportedly included the team responsible for id Tech.

One source told Kotaku they were unsure how the studio could even continue maintaining the engine, suggesting that even patching id Tech might require calling someone who had just been laid off.

“The institutional knowledge is just not there,” they said. “id Tech as a technology is probably dead forever.”

That already paints a fairly bleak picture, but the situation gets even stranger when contrasted against another new report, this time from This Week in Videogames, the new spin-off website from Youtuber Skill Up. According to the outlet, a source with knowledge of Xbox’s plans claims Microsoft still intends to utilise id Tech going forward.

Which, naturally, begs the obvious question: how?

The report points to the Texas WARN filing, which lists several of the roles lost during the cuts:

• Director of Engine Technology
• Principal Engine Programmer (x2)
• Principal Full Stack Engineer
• Principal Tools Programmer
• Senior Engine Programmer (x3)
• Senior Programmer
• Engine Programmer
• Tools Programmer (x2)

“Despite these cuts, a source with knowledge of the situation at Xbox told This Week in Videogames that Xbox still plans to work with id Tech moving forward,” says Edmon Tran in the report.

In other words, Microsoft apparently still wants id Tech to have a future after laying off a sizeable chunk of the people responsible for actually building, maintaining, and improving it.

That matters because id Tech is not just some dusty relic sitting in the corner of id Software’s office. It has powered the modern Doom games, while branches of the technology have also been used by MachineGames for Wolfenstein and, more recently, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle via its custom Motor version of id Tech.

Meanwhile, an internal email from Bethesda president Jill Braff, published by IGN, said the company is shifting away from a planning model based primarily around “what’s next” for each independent studio and toward one focused on Bethesda’s “strongest franchises.”

Braff does not appear to have named those franchises directly in the memo. However, reporting from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, quoted by Windows Central, claims ZeniMax/Bethesda will not simply be reduced to Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, and will also continue working on Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake.

Which makes the id Software situation even more batshit insane.

Microsoft reportedly wants to keep using id Tech. Bethesda is reportedly still treating Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein as part of its biggest-franchise future. And yet id Software, the studio behind Doom and the team responsible for id Tech, has just been absolutely hammered by layoffs.

If the reported numbers are accurate, there may only be around 40 to 50 people currently left at id Software. That hardly seems like enough to lead development on a brand-new Doom game, never mind maintain and improve a proprietary engine at the same time. And even if Microsoft does intend to keep id Tech alive, who is going to do that work if so much of the engine team’s institutional knowledge has just been thrown out the door?

At this point, I have to assume that either one or more of these various sources is wrong due to the weird contradictions, or Xbox has finally lost its remaining marbles. The second one is looking pretty likely.