A developer from id Software has criticized Microsoft following recent layoffs, stating that 'morale has never been lower.' The comments come after Xbox's latest round of job cuts, which will see around 3,200 people lose their jobs before the end of the financial year. While no studios were shut down, some have been sold off or allowed to go independent, such as Psychonauts creator Double Fine.
Impact on id Software
One of the worst affected studios is Doom developer id Software, which has lost roughly half of its employees. This is particularly devastating given the studio's history, with Doom and Quake being instrumental first-person shooters.
Lead services programmer Chris Hays, who has been at the studio since 2010, spoke out against the layoffs on the Auf ein Bier podcast. 'It was so inhumane,' Hays said. 'It was demoralising, and morale has never been lower.'
Impossible to make games
Hays argued that making triple-A games with half the staff is impossible. 'It is hard to make a game that is triple-A that's like we've done before with half the people. And by hard I mean impossible.' He added, 'It's hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted that you need. Entire disciplines that are gone. So the reassurances that we're still the same id and we're still going to do things – well, first of all, we're not the same id. We're half the same id.'
These 'reassurances' refer to official statements from id Software after the layoffs, which claimed they 'still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we're known for' and that the team is 'about the same size' as when they made 2016's Doom.
Criticism of Xbox and Game Pass
Hays claims studio management has been told by Xbox 'things that are allowed to be said and what is not allowed to be said' to avoid internal 'unrest' or cause 'more people to jump ship.'
He also criticized Xbox's view of success with Game Pass. Since id Software is owned by Bethesda, which is owned by Xbox, their games are released day one on the subscription service. 'I know that [id has] serious issues with how Game Pass is done,' Hays said. 'Whenever we see the financial reports that say that there were poor sales under Bethesda, like, what's a sale? If you have Game Pass, are you saying poor sale means a poor number of games sold? Because of course. You're not doing a games-sold business model.'
'And they fundamentally don't understand art. They don't understand art, they don't understand games, they don't understand that business model. If you cut half of a studio and don't actually take into account how it's made, you don't understand the cohesion between our teams was what made us successful.'
Wider industry criticism
Hays extended his criticism to the wider games industry, arguing that executives are divorced from the 'actual reality' of making good games. 'I think that even in companies that are exclusively making games, especially the larger publishers at the top, I think they fundamentally don't understand what makes the business. They may understand the numbers for marketing and for sales, but the actual reality of what makes a good game a good game, how it gets done, they're so disconnected from that they don't understand what it takes to build a team, what it takes to maintain a team. Failures are important, too.'
His comments echo a famous quote from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who said in 1995 that 'The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products.'
Upcoming Doom release
By coincidence, over the weekend, Blaze Entertainment revealed a new Doom collection compatible with Evercade handheld devices. The cartridge combines native ports of Doom and Doom 2 with six map expansions, alongside a collection of multiplayer maps. The package also comes with exclusive gameplay modifiers, ranging from turbo monsters, double monsters, explosive deaths, vampire mode, and the ability to increase the blood. It's unclear whether id Software had any direct connection with the release, but The Doom Collection will be out on October 30, 2026.
Their most recent traditional release is the Doom: The Dark Ages expansion Revelations, most of whose staff are reported to have been laid off as soon as it launched.
