id Software’s Chris Hays: Xbox Layoffs Left Morale ‘Never Been Lower’ – GamesReviews.com
id Software’s Chris Hays: Xbox Layoffs Left Morale ‘Never Been Lower’
Author:News DeskCategory:News, Date: 10th August, 2026
id Software’s long-serving lead services programmer, Chris Hays, has broken ranks with his own studio’s public messaging, saying morale inside the DOOM developer “has never been lower” following Xbox’s sweeping July layoffs, and branding the process “inhumane” and “demoralizing.” Hays made the comments during an on-the-record interview with the German YouTube channel Auf ein Bier, in an episode titled “Well Played: What happened at id Software, when the layoffs hit.”
136 Jobs Cut in a WARN Notice as Hays Speaks Out
Appearing on the Auf ein Bier YouTube channel, Hays stated that the team at id had always been concerned that layoffs were possible and remarked that morale had never been lower. “It was so inhumane. It was demoralizing, and morale has never been lower,” he said.
The remarks follow a brutal month for id Software. A WARN notice showed 136 people, including 40 remote workers, assigned to the office of id Software in Texas were laid off after Microsoft announced plans to eliminate 3,200 roles across Xbox before the end of the current fiscal year. Hays, who has spent roughly 15 years at the studio and remains employed there, was among the few current staffers to speak publicly and on the record about the fallout.
Hays Says Xbox “Fundamentally” Misunderstands Art and Games
Beyond morale, Hays used the interview to take direct aim at Microsoft’s leadership philosophy. “They fundamentally don’t understand art. They don’t understand games. They don’t understand that business model,” Hays says, before noting a company that organizes itself in fiscal quarters maybe isn’t best suited to make art that can take years to nurture.
He argued the scale of the cuts makes it effectively impossible to keep producing games at id’s previous output. “It’s 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,” Hays said. He added that entire disciplines the studio depends on had simply vanished. “It’s hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted that you need, entire disciplines that are gone.”
Hays also disputed id Software’s own reassurances to fans, arguing management had been handed talking points rather than an actual plan. Hays adds, “we’re not the same iD, we’re half the same iD.” Pressed on whether the studio’s headcount claims held up against the credited team on the original DOOM (2016), Hays replied: “There is a reason they say close to, because it is less.”
Hugo Martin Pushes Back on the “Gutted” Narrative
id Software’s leadership has told a different story. id’s own statement to IGN on July 10 struck a similar note, thanking fans and describing the studio as “about the same size we were when making Doom 2016,” with the crew it needs to build the games it’s known for.
DOOM: The Dark Ages director Hugo Martin doubled down on that framing during a July livestream marking the launch of the Revelations DLC. “There’s been reports that we’ve been nerfed into the ground and gutted and we have 50 people, and that’s not true,” said Martin. “We’re the size we were when we made Doom (2016) and id Tech is very much alive and well.” He also pointed to distributed development, noting engineers based in Frankfurt and at MachineGames continue to support the id Tech engine.
Game Developer
That reassurance hasn’t landed with everyone who lived through the cuts. Multiple anonymous sources told Game Developer that around two thirds of those left at id Software who worked on Doom (2016) were laid off at the beginning of the month, which reportedly included many “multiple hat” developers who were integral to the team. Those sources argued the raw headcount comparison misses what actually left the building. Although the sources don’t dispute that id Software may now technically be the same size as it was in 2016, they feel Martin has willfully ignored how losing so much talent and experience will impact the studio.
One laid-off employee put it bluntly to Game Developer: “I don’t agree with Hugo’s statement and many who were laid off were upset by those comments and saw it as viewing their contributions as insignificant to the success of our games… If you cut a stat in half everyone would call that nerfed. In truth the Doom team is half here, half thrown away.”
Doom: The Dark Ages, Game Pass, and What Comes Next for NZ/AU Players
The dispute lands at an awkward moment for the franchise. Doom: The Dark Ages and its recently launched Revelations expansion remain available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC — including through Xbox Game Pass, which continues to serve subscribers across New Zealand and Australia. Hays’ comments specifically flagged Game Pass’s business model as part of the disconnect he sees between Xbox executives and the studio floor, arguing that fiscal-quarter thinking doesn’t match how long a game actually takes to get right.
For now, neither id Software nor Xbox has detailed a concrete roadmap for how a smaller team is expected to sustain the scale of future DOOM entries. With one of the studio’s own remaining veterans publicly contradicting his employer’s messaging, the question of whether id can still deliver AAA DOOM at its previous scope remains unresolved — and unanswered even internally
Read also:Quake’s Dawn of the Machine Free Update Adds 19 Maps for 30th Anniversary
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News Desk
The GamesReviews News Desk covers the latest gaming news across PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, PC and esports. Reporting is AI-assisted and reviewed by our editorial team.
