How do you make a triple-A game with half the people? According to one id Software developer, you don’t. “It is hard to make a game that is triple-A that’s like we’ve done before with half the people,” Chris Hays said in a recent podcast interview. “And by hard I mean impossible.”
Hays, a lead services programmer who has worked at id Software since 2010, was speaking on the Auf ein Bier podcast about the scale and impact of the Xbox layoffs that hit the Doom studio in July 2026. His comments offer one of the most candid first-hand accounts yet of what the restructuring has done to one of gaming’s most storied developers.
‘Morale Has Never Been Lower’
Hays did not mince his words about the atmosphere inside id Software since the cuts. “It was so inhumane,” he said of the way the layoffs were handled. “It was demoralising, and morale has never been lower.”
The specific toll is professional as well as personal. “It’s hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted that you need,” Hays continued. “Entire disciplines that are gone.” He pushed back directly on the reassurances that id Software has publicly issued in the aftermath, arguing that the studio’s identity itself has been fractured: “We’re not the same id. We’re half the same id.”
Beyond the loss of colleagues, Hays raised a systemic concern that goes beyond any single studio. In separate comments reported by PC Gamer, he argued that the relentless cycle of mass layoffs across the industry — of which Microsoft’s Xbox cuts are the most visible example — is eroding the fundamental motivation that produces good games. When developers cannot trust that strong work will protect their jobs, the incentive to care diminishes. “That’s why games are getting worse,” was the gist of his argument.
Half the Studio, Gone
On 8 July 2026, Microsoft’s Xbox division cut approximately 136 positions at id Software — roughly half of the studio’s workforce. The cuts were part of a broader restructuring that eliminated more than 3,200 roles across Xbox’s gaming operations. Among the studios affected, id Software was one of the worst hit of those that weren’t shuttered entirely: others, including Double Fine (Psychonauts), were sold off or allowed to go independent.
The scale of the id Software losses is particularly notable given the studio’s history. The team behind Doom, Quake, and the modern Doom revival starting with 2016’s rebooted game built a reputation across decades for technical excellence and creative ambition. The institutional knowledge lost in a cut of this magnitude is not easily replaced.
The Official Line vs What Employees Are Saying
After the July cuts, id Software posted an official statement on social media that struck a markedly different tone. The studio said it “still has the crew we need to build the games and tech we’re known for” and noted that the current team was “about the same size” as when they made Doom in 2016.
Hays disputes that characterisation, and goes further in alleging that the messaging itself is controlled. He claims studio management has been told by Xbox which things are “allowed to be said and what is not allowed to be said,” with the stated goal of avoiding internal “unrest” and preventing more experienced staff from leaving voluntarily. Whether that reflects a formal communications directive or informal pressure from above, the implication is that the public face of id Software’s confidence does not match the private reality.
Context: Of the 3,200 Xbox roles cut in July 2026, approximately 440 affected Bethesda and ZeniMax employees — including staff at id Software, Arkane, and ZeniMax Online Studios. A further round of cuts is expected before the end of Microsoft’s financial year.
A Warning for the Wider Industry
Hays’ frustration is not only with what has happened at id Software specifically. His broader argument is that repeated mass layoffs — not just at Microsoft but across the industry — are structurally damaging the people who make games.
When a developer’s job security depends entirely on a financial quarter rather than the quality of their work, the calculation changes. Long-term creative investment, the kind that built id Software’s reputation over decades, becomes harder to justify when the industry’s direction of travel suggests those bets may not pay off for the people making them. “Developers don’t have the incentive to care anymore,” as Hays framed it — not as a moral critique of individuals, but as a structural outcome of how the industry is currently run.
Microsoft has not responded to Hays’ comments. At QuakeCon last week, the id Software founders gathered publicly and struck an outwardly resilient tone. The gap between that public front and what one of the studio’s longest-serving developers is now saying on a podcast suggests the reunion’s warmth did not resolve the deeper questions about what id Software looks like from here.