Hugo Martin just told the doomposters to cope harder: id Software isn’t some skeleton crew of 50 sad bastards nerfed into the dirt by Xbox’s bloodbath. The creative director hit the mic during a Doom: The Dark Ages DLC stream and flat-out called bullshit on the “gutted” narrative, insisting the team’s back at the exact headcount it had when it shipped the 2016 reboot that dragged the franchise out of the grave.

A Texas WARN notice last week dropped the receipts—96 locals and 40 remote roles axed, roughly half the studio gone in Asha Sharma’s big “reset.” id Software already confirmed it’s operating at 2016 staffing levels and that id Tech still has engineers in Frankfurt and MachineGames keeping the lights on. Martin added that Dark Ages is “doing very well related to the forecast,” which is PR-speak for “not a total catastrophe” after early estimates floated under a million units sold. Meanwhile, laid-off staff are out protesting with the CWA while John Romero’s throwing digital hugs and Carmack’s doing the sad dad routine about sales.

The real story isn’t the headcount spin—it’s that a studio famous for delivering razor-sharp shooters just got its guts ripped out mid-cycle and the guy in charge is still expected to cook another one. id Tech isn’t dead, but the body count says the next project better slap or the excuses run out fast.