Following mass layoffs at id Software in July, lead services programmer Chris Hays took aim at Microsoft's decision. Speaking to YouTube channel Auf ein Bier, he said: "They fundamentally don't understand art. They don't understand games. They don't understand that business model."
Hays, who has worked at the studio since 2010 and contributed to titles including Doom Eternal, was blunt about the viability of the cuts. "It's hard to make a game that is AAA, like we've done before, with half the people. And by hard, I mean impossible," he stated. He pointed out that entire departments were gutted, eliminating disciplines essential to game production.
id Software was hit especially hard by Microsoft's gaming division layoffs, which totaled 1,600 job cuts with another 1,600 to follow. The studio, creator of foundational franchises like Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein, lost 136 employees in the restructure.
