Hidden Horses employee-owned studio formed by laid-off DOOM developers, Digi Mart USA News (Dallas-Fort Worth area): A new game studio called Hidden Horses has announced itself in a November 11 press release, alongside a pre-launch Kickstarter page and an 18-minute documentary titled “Foundation of Hidden Horses.” The press release says the team includes approximately 20 developers with extensive experience working together at id Software, while the Kickstarter page describes it as more than 20.
The studio was formed after Microsoft’s July 6 job cuts affected id Software, one of the hardest-hit studios, with reports putting its losses at 136 people. In the documentary, tools programmer Johnmichael Quinlan recalls that the cuts landed one day before id Software released Revelations, the campaign expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages, and says the timing felt like an attack.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s memo to staff that day announced around 1,600 role eliminations immediately, out of roughly 3,200 planned across Microsoft’s 2027 fiscal year, and said Xbox was operating at margins three to ten times lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.
Rather than separate, the developers chose to keep working together. According to the press release, Hidden Horses uses an employee-ownership model that pairs shared ownership and democratic governance with clear creative leadership.
Co-founders named in the material include engine programmer Dustin Land, tools programmer Johnmichael Quinlan and executive producer Andrew Willis. Willis said, “We believe the people who create games should have an ownership stake in what they build.” Land said the team’s bond was central to the decision to stay together and to create the kind of old school shooters he believes people want more of.
The studio’s first project, Danger Pay, is a single-player first-person shooter with arena-style combat set on a deadly game show run by a sinister AI host. Hidden Horses names the 1987 film The Running Man and the arcade game Smash TV as main influences and promises fast-paced action with “slick optimization.” The studio has not yet shown gameplay, named target platforms or given a release window.
The Kickstarter page is marked “Launching soon” and has been tagged as a Project We Love. According to the page, the money raised would cover the basics of starting a studio and financing a game, including licenses, hardware and healthcare.
The funding goal will be set based on the first project’s timeline and costs, and development of Danger Pay will begin once that goal is met. Until the campaign goes live, interested players are being directed to the studio’s website and Discord server for updates.
