id Software dev slams Xbox after layoffs: "They don't understand art or games"

Full text

A developer still working at Doom steward id Software has criticized corporate owner Xbox for laying off such a big portion of the iconic studio and seemingly misunderstanding the business its trying to dominate.

Xbox's sweeping layoffs recently hit 1,600 people across the gaming division, with another 1,600 job cuts yet to come. But one developer that was hit especially hard was id Software, the famed game maker behind Doom, Quake, the original Wolfenstein, and more.

Speaking to the Auf ein Bier YouTube channel about the cuts, a 16-year veteran at the studio and current lead services programmer Chris Hays had some critiques about Xbox management.

"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. "How can we get this financial quarter or year to look good? Those don't align with the same things that make a successful game."

Since mass layoffs began impacting many an Xbox subsidiary, there's been lots of questions about what state id Software is in now. The developer reportedly lost half its staff, and some laid off devs speculated the studio is in no shape to make games like they used to. Doom: The Dark Ages director Hugo Martin did refute the claims , however: "We're the size we were when we made Doom 2016 and id Tech is very much alive and well."

Regardless, Chris Hays isn't sure what happens now. "It's hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted [and] you need entire disciplines that are gone." Xbox has apparently yet to communicate how id Software would make games of a similar scope to The Dark Ages with trimmed down team.

"Who will do that work now? We had like who's going to make our skyboxes when we get rid of our skybox artist? How are we going to maintain infrastructure when we get rid of our infrastructure team? How are we going to maintain our engine when so much of our engine team is let go?" Hays adds, "we're not the same iD, we're half the same iD."

"There are no benefits to being owned by Microsoft," says Doom dev: "They have destroyed immense amounts of value that I don't even think that they're aware of"