After layoffs ripped through Doom developer id Software in July, lead services programmer Chris Hays has taken aim at Xbox: “They fundamentally don’t understand art.”
Hays, who is currently employed at the studio behind first-person shooter classics like Doom Eternal and has been with the team since 2010, unloaded on the recent decision to cut 136 staff during a recent conversation with Andre Peschke on Auf ein Bier. He didn’t mince words, to put it lightly.
“It’s hard to make a game that is AAA, that’s like we’ve done before, with half the people. And by hard, I mean impossible,” Hays said. “It’s hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted that you need, entire disciplines that are gone.
“So, if they’ve got some kind of new plan for how this is going to work, that hasn’t been told; we don’t know what that is. 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. id was the people. What made us special was the people and the relationships we have.”
The “reassurances” Hays mentioned at least partially refer to some of the messages that have emerged in the fallout of last month’s layoffs. id issued a statement to IGN July 10 that thanked fans for their support, acknowledging that, while the studio had been “impacted,” the restructuring left it at “about the same size we were when making Doom 2016.” It added, “We still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we’re known for.”
id reclaimed its title as a leading FPS studio with its 2016 Doom game and went on to keep its crown with 2020’s Doom Eternal and 2025’s Doom: The Dark Ages. Hays said id’s overseers at Microsoft and Xbox are trying to minimize the “unrest.”
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