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Now, anonymous sources tell Game Developer that the losses at id amount to around half the studio, and that the QA department in particular has been heavily affected. Meanwhile, id co-founder John Romero has taken to social media to express his grief at the cuts.

"I'm so sorry for everyone at id Software affected by these layoffs," wrote Romero. "I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It's a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history." Romero, famously, was forced to resign from id in the mid-'90s after clashing with fellow co-founder John Carmack (they're on better terms now).

Romero, for his part, is pretty chuffed with how id's current devs have continued the studio's legacy. "Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today's industry," he wrote. "The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people."

Touching on an issue with particular salience in the wake of Sony's announcement that it will be ditching physical PlayStation discs in 2028, Romero professed hope that someone is doing the work to preserve "the company's ongoing legacy (the work, code, assets, stories and the people behind them).

"id's history is critically important to the history of games. I've preserved id's complete early history from our start at Softdisk through to August 6, 1996, including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has." In a follow-up post, Romero added that "For those asking, it's in my will to donate everything to the Strong Museum of Play, including all digital assets."

Regardless, Romero's heart goes out to the studio's current and (now) former devs: "I'm thinking of everyone at id today, and everyone else affected by yesterday's layoffs. Romero Games was there a year ago. I know how devastating it is, and my heart's with all of you."

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War. %!s()

The assessments will be based on data held by credit reference agencies, but the commission has insisted they are not "affordability checks".

The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents gambling firms, said it was "disappointed and frustrated" with the changes, which they said could push customers towards the black market.

The commission has not set a timeline for the changes saying they will be introduced in a "very careful, staged way".

It said there was evidence some high-spending customers were experiencing financial difficulties but not being identified or supported by bookies.

The checks will start with over-25s who gamble more than £5,000 in a rolling 24-hour period. Initially, they will only apply to the largest gambling companies .

The watchdog said the first stage will affect less than 0.5% of customers and will be rolled out this summer, following engagement with the industry and other stakeholders.

The threshold will eventually be lowered to £1,000 in 24 hours, or £750 for under-25s.

In 2023, a white paper on gambling recommended enhanced checks on customers experiencing very high losses.

On Tuesday, the commission said high-spending gamblers were between two and four times more likely to have a debt management plan, and between two and five times more likely to have a default in the previous 12 months than consumers in the wider population.

The acting chief executive of the Gambling Commission, Sarah Gardner, said the vast majority of customers would never require an assessment.

Those who do would have a frictionless, document-free assessment provided by credit reference agencies, with no impact on their credit score.

She said the commission believed this approach "will enable support for high-spending customers in financial difficulties, while reducing friction for customers who are not".

The commission has insisted that the assessments are not the same as affordability checks, which Gardner said were "deeply unpopular" with gamblers.

She added that stakeholders had expressed concerns that more regulation could push problem gamblers onto the black market.

The Gambling Survey for Great Britain, external found that in 2024, 9.3% of adults who gambled online - excluding those who took part in lotteries - had a score of eight or more on the Problem Gambling Severity Index. The index goes up to 27.

A score of eight or more means a person "may have lost control of their behaviour" and have experienced adverse consequences from gambling.

The commission said it was still seeing failures in enforcement, and recently found a case of a customer who deposited £25,000 in 25 days before being interacted with.

Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross said the assessments must work for "consumers, gambling operators and the wider ecosystem".

But the Betting and Gaming Council said it was "deeply disappointed and frustrated" that the Gambling Commission was backing risk assessments "despite the significant concerns raised over the last 18 months by the BGC, operators, racing, parliamentarians and customers".

Its chief executive, Grainne Hurst, said: "The central issues around reliability, consumer impact and the practical operation of these checks remain unresolved."

She said the Gambling Commission has not provided enough "accurate, reliable or consistent" data to support the checks.

"We support evidence-led, proportionate regulation that protects vulnerable people while allowing the 22.5 million adults in Britain who bet each month to do so safely.

"But until the Commission can demonstrate these checks are accurate, consistent and genuinely frictionless, our fundamental concerns remain, including the risk of driving customers towards the growing illegal gambling market."

The British Horseracing Authority also criticised the announcement, saying the changes would "subject racing bettors to unwarranted levels of intrusion". %!s()

ForbesiPhone 18 Pro Release Date: A New September Timeline EmergesBy David Phelan

Never underestimate the power of color: back in 2003, when 3G was launching, the big seller at one holiday season should have been 3G handsets. But the real head-turner? A new version of the Motorola RAZR flip phone in a new color: hot pink.

Three cables have just been released in a new color, “that’s impossible to ignore: Power Pink,” the company said. It’s not like Apple doesn’t make its own cables already, though it’s true that they are only available in one color, white. And while there’s nothing to stop Apple becoming more colorful in its cables, it seems to like to defer that to Beats.

On a similar note, the iPhone cases Beats makes are strikingly different in tone from Apple’s own.

Color doesn’t mean much if the quality isn’t as high as on Apple’s own products.

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After all, we use USB-C cables more than ever, to charge everything from AirPods to phones to cameras to tablets and laptops. So, they need to be durable as well as attractive.

Having tried the existing Beats cables, I can say that they are carefully crafted and, because they are woven, offer strength and longevity.

The Beats Color Strategy And Athlete Leaks

Color isn’t anything new for Beats. The current range of cables come in four shades: Bolt Black, Surge Stone, Nitro Navy and Rapid Red — the last one matching the original Beats headphones.

Perhaps that’s a clue as to why the pink cable is here now. In recent weeks, Beats has deliberately leaked images of new, unreleased headphones via the social media channels of World Cup footballers, for instance, and pink has been to the fore there, too.

There are already Beats Powerbeats Fit and Solo 4 headphones in pink, so you could pair the cables with these to match.

The pricing for these cables, which are available from Apple online and Apple Stores, is the same as the current colors. For a 5ft (1.5 meter) USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to USB-A cable, the price is $18.99 (£18.99 in the U.K.) while a 10ft (3 meter) version costs $29.99 (£29.99).

Another quality concern is addressed in the speed of these cables. The 1.5m USB-A to USB-C cable charges at up to 15W, the 1.5m USB-C to USB-C can support charging up to 60W, while the 3m cable, presumably aimed at laptop charging, supports charging up to 240W.

Why High-Visibility Tech Accessories Are Winning

Color, then, is a way to make a statement — or at the very least to know which is your cable and not somebody else’s in a public space or a shared apartment, for instance.

And if you’re anything like me, you’re glad to have a cable that’s easier to find, and harder to leave behind, because it’s not plain black, hiding in a dark corner.

Other brands have their own answers to these issues. Nomad, for instance, has a USB4 data cable which uses Kevlar in its construction for extra strength.

The same company also builds an Apple Watch puck built into a USB-C to USB-C cable, has a Universal cable which connects to USB-A, USB-C and Lightning and a keyring accessory, called ChargeKey which is tiny and comes in a color as timely and eye-catching as the new Beats shade: Stellar Orange.