id Software Developer Calls Out Microsoft After Major Layoffs

A current id Software developer says the studio has lost much of the talent that made its recent Doom games possible and questions Microsoft's approach to Game Pass.

Microsoft's recent gaming layoffs have hit id Software particularly hard, and now a developer still working at the studio has offered a surprisingly blunt look at what those cuts mean behind the scenes. id Software lost a large portion of its workforce during Microsoft's latest round of layoffs. That alone would be a major change for any studio, but the comments from within id Software make the situation sound even more serious.

Lead service programmer Chris Hays reportedly pushed back against the idea that id Software is still essentially the same studio it was before the layoffs. His argument was simple: the people are the studio. Remove a huge number of those people, and the studio naturally changes with them.

That matters because id Software's recent games, particularly the modern Doom titles, weren't made by a tiny team working with limited resources. They required large groups of developers working together for years. According to Hays, the studio's biggest games were created with roughly twice as many people as it has now.

So, what happens when a studio that once had the workforce for huge AAA productions suddenly has far fewer developers?

The answer may be smaller projects. Hays reportedly suggested that the studio's current size could make it difficult to produce another game on the same scale as Doom: The Dark Ages. Unless Microsoft eventually approves new projects and allows id Software to rebuild its workforce, the studio may have to adjust its ambitions.

There is also frustration surrounding Microsoft's Game Pass strategy. Hays questioned how Microsoft can talk about poor game sales when many of its biggest titles are available through Game Pass. A player who downloads Doom through the subscription service isn't buying a traditional copy of the game, but that doesn't necessarily mean the game isn't being played or contributing value to the service.

That creates a strange situation for developers. If a game is successful at attracting Game Pass subscribers or keeping existing subscribers active, shouldn't those numbers matter just as much as traditional sales? The question becomes even more complicated when a game is also released on PC and PlayStation.

Doom: The Dark Ages launched across multiple platforms, meaning its overall performance can't simply be judged by Xbox sales alone. Hays reportedly went on to make some extremely harsh comments about Microsoft's understanding of games, arguing that the company doesn't properly understand art, games, or the business model behind them.

Coming from someone who remains at id Software, those comments are difficult to ignore.

The bigger concern now is what Microsoft actually wants id Software to become.  The studio could continue making major single-player games, but it could also find itself taking on more technical or support-focused work for other Xbox teams. That would be a major shift for a studio whose name has been closely associated with groundbreaking first-person shooters for decades.

For now, Microsoft's broader gaming reset is still playing out. But if id Software's own developers are already questioning the direction of the company, the real question is: what will the studio look like when Microsoft's reset is finally over?