Willis makes clear that crunching was not mandated by id Software, but says that the amount of work they needed to do, combined with the timeframe the team was given to do it in, made the implication clear.

“You get loaded up with 60 hours of work in a week, and what do you do?” he says. “It’s almost this thing like, at the level of quality that the players expect and that you expect from yourself, it’s kind of like almost pseudo-induced crunch.”

Sounds like they had high personal standards, loyalty to the company, and were emotionally invested in the quality of what they’re working on. Big mistake in 2026.

Willis was one of the many id Software devs laid off as part of Microsoft’s massive cuts, in which it slashed 1,600 jobs (with another 1,600 being cut over the next fiscal year) and numerous studios like Compulsion Games and Double Fine were cut loose from Xbox Game Studios. Apparently, the Revelations team learned about the layoffs the day before the expansion was due to launch.

“You spend so much of your energy and hours of your life, and sacrifice a bunch of things to get something out of the door, and then they lay you off,” Willis said. “It’s such a wild feeling.”

id has a union. The recent xbox layoffs that impacted id are suspected to be illegal union busting. There’s a ULP that’s currently being fought.

I wish they would. I wish the rest of my software developers/engineers would but that inertia is a bitch to overcome.