The Doom Developer Xbox Layoffs controversy is growing after a veteran id Software developer slammed Microsoft, saying the cuts have made it much harder to create big games on the scale of Doom: The Dark Ages.
Former id Software developer Chris Hays said Microsoft and Xbox “fundamentally don’t understand art” or the way major games are actually made.
His point is simple. Big games take years, while large companies often think in quarters and yearly targets. Those two timelines do not always work well together.
The comments come after major layoffs at id Software, the studio behind Doom and Quake. Reports from July said around half of the team had been affected, with 136 jobs eventually confirmed as cut.
That is a huge loss for a studio known for building some of the most technically demanding shooters in the industry.
id Software Says It Can Still Make Doom, but Former Staff Are Not So Sure
id Software has already pushed back on claims that the studio was completely gutted.
The company said its current team is roughly the same size as the group that made Doom in 2016 and that it still has enough people to continue making the games and technology it is known for.
Doom director Hugo Martin has also said reports about id Tech being left without a real development team are not true.
But headcount does not tell the full story.
Later reports claimed many experienced Doom 2016 veterans were among the people who lost their jobs. That means the studio may still have a similar number of employees to its older days, but not necessarily the same mix of experience.
That appears to be where Hays’ concern comes from.
Making Doom: The Dark Ages required large teams across design, animation, engineering, art, QA and other departments. Losing experienced people from several of those areas cannot simply be solved by pointing at the final employee count.
The Bigger Question Is What Kind of id Software Comes Next
The timing makes the situation even stranger.
id Software is coming off Doom: The Dark Ages and is still supporting its technology, while Quake remains one of the biggest names in PC gaming history.
Microsoft has also said it still plans to use id Tech, meaning the company clearly sees value in the technology id Software has spent decades building.
That creates an awkward situation.
Xbox wants the games and the engine, but the people who helped build them have just gone through a major round of cuts.
Hays argues that this is where large corporate thinking can clash with creative work. A game can spend years looking uncertain before everything finally comes together. That process does not always fit neatly into financial targets.
His criticism also comes at a sensitive time for Xbox.
Microsoft’s latest gaming layoffs have affected several studios, not just id Software, while the company continues to focus more heavily on its biggest franchises.
For Doom fans, the real concern is not whether id Software disappears tomorrow. The studio has made clear that it is still operating and still plans to build new games.
The bigger question is what those games will look like with a very different team behind them.
Doom survived plenty of changes over the last 30 years.
This may be one of the hardest ones yet.
Microsoft outlined its wider company changes, while Ars Technica reported on the impact at id Software.
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