Former id Software developer Chris Hays publicly criticized Xbox this week after a new round of layoffs hit the storied Doom studio, arguing that company leadership fails to grasp what makes games and the people who build them valuable. Hays, who worked on id Software’s recent Doom titles, said the studio has been hollowed out by repeated cuts under Microsoft’s ownership.
“They fundamentally don’t understand art. They don’t understand games,” Hays said, according to a report from GamesRadar. “We’re not the same id. We’re half the same id.”
A Studio Diminished by Repeated Cuts
id Software, the Texas-based studio behind the Doom and Quake franchises, has been part of ZeniMax Media and, by extension, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios division since 2021. The developer has weathered several waves of layoffs since Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard closed in 2023, with cuts repeatedly touching teams across Xbox’s stable of studios, including id, Turn 10, and various ZeniMax-owned labels.
Hays’ comments suggest the latest reduction has hit particularly hard at a studio long regarded as one of the most influential in first-person shooter history. Doom, first released in 1993, helped define the genre, and the studio’s 2016 reboot and its sequels, Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages, were credited with restoring id Software’s reputation as a technical and creative leader in action game design.
Frustration Over Corporate Priorities
The developer’s remarks reflect a broader pattern of frustration voiced by game industry workers toward large publishers that have combined blockbuster releases with sustained workforce reductions. Since 2023, tens of thousands of jobs have been cut across the video game industry, even as major franchises continued to generate significant revenue for their parent companies. Microsoft’s gaming division alone has conducted several distinct layoff rounds affecting thousands of employees across Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax studios.
Hays’ characterization of id Software as being reduced to “half” its former self speaks to concerns raised by other developers in recent years: that repeated layoffs erode institutional knowledge, creative continuity, and the specialized technical expertise that made a studio like id Software distinct in the first place. Id has historically been known for pushing rendering technology forward, from the original Doom engine to id Tech 7, and for a tightly knit design culture that many veteran employees have described as central to the studio’s output.
“They fundamentally don’t understand art. They don’t understand games.” — Chris Hays
Part of a Larger Industry Pattern
The criticism arrives amid continued scrutiny of how major technology and entertainment companies balance investment in emerging priorities, including artificial intelligence, against traditional creative and engineering headcount. Tech leaders across sectors have increasingly framed workforce reductions and AI adoption as complementary strategies, a stance that has drawn pushback from workers and, in some cases, lawmakers. Meta’s chief technology officer recently argued that AI-driven productivity gains should translate into employees working more rather than needing fewer of them, a position that drew criticism from workers who saw it as dismissive of labor concerns. Elsewhere, political figures such as Rep. Greg Casar have urged lawmakers to reject AI industry money, citing worries that corporate influence is shaping policy at the expense of workers.
Xbox has not issued a detailed public response to Hays’ specific comments. Microsoft’s gaming division has previously framed layoffs as difficult but necessary steps tied to aligning teams with a smaller number of high-priority projects, a rationale the company has repeated across several rounds of cuts since 2023. Critics within the developer community, however, have increasingly questioned whether that framing accounts for the creative and cultural cost of losing veteran staff at studios with decades of institutional history.
What It Means for Doom’s Future
It remains unclear how the latest layoffs will affect id Software’s ongoing projects or the long-term trajectory of the Doom franchise, which has been central to Xbox’s first-party lineup since the Bethesda and ZeniMax acquisitions. Doom: The Dark Ages, released earlier in 2026, was positioned by Microsoft as a flagship title for both Xbox consoles and PC Game Pass subscribers, underscoring the franchise’s continued commercial importance even as the studio behind it faces workforce reductions.
Hays’ comments add a prominent voice to a growing chorus of current and former game developers speaking out about the human cost of consolidation in the industry. As Microsoft continues to manage one of the largest game studio portfolios in the world, the tension between corporate restructuring and creative continuity at studios like id Software appears likely to remain a point of public debate, particularly among the developers whose work is most directly affected.
Readers following Xbox’s broader content strategy can also see every Game Pass title that left the service in July 2026, a reminder of how frequently the platform’s lineup shifts even as its underlying studios face structural change.
