Xbox ‘Doesn’t Understand Art,’ Says id Software Dev After Layoffs

A veteran id Software developer isn’t holding back about what recent layoffs did to the studio — or what he thinks Xbox understands about making games at all.

Layoffs Can Destroy More Than Individual Jobs

Speaking on the “Well Played” podcast, Chris Hays – who worked on Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages – said id can no longer operate at the scale it once did.

“It is 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,” he said.

“It’s hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted that you need. Entire disciplines that are gone,” explains Chris.

He pushed back directly on reassurances from leadership that id remains unchanged: “So the reassurances that we’re still the same id and we’re still gonna do things — well, first of all, we’re not the same id. We’re half the same id.”

Xbox Accused Of Misunderstanding Creative Development

Hays also claimed id management has been handed “talking points” and told by Xbox what it can and cannot say about the situation – an allegation that, if accurate, suggests Microsoft is actively managing how the layoffs are discussed internally and externally.

His sharpest line came when explaining why cutting half a studio doesn’t just remove headcount; it breaks the way teams function together:

“If you cut half of a studio and don’t take into account how it’s made, you don’t understand the cohesion between our teams was a part of what made it successful.”

That’s the core of his “doesn’t understand art” criticism: creative production at id’s scale depends on years of built-up trust and shared process between specific people, not just filled job titles.

id Software recently released an expansion for Doom: The Dark Ages called Revelations. They also collaborated with MachineGames on a new campaign for Quake. This makes Hayes’ remarks all the more heartbreaking, as a studio behind such well-received games can also suffer mass layoffs for no viable reason.

Xbox issues mass layoffs as part of its restructuring and plans to get back to player and revenue growth by 2027. But with layoffs of experienced developers who made the products that gave Xbox its name, Asha’s ambitions are mere hyperbole.