id Software Developer Calls Microsoft Layoffs "Impossible" for AAA Games: "We're Half the Same id"

A lead developer at id Software — the studio behind the Doom franchise — has broken ranks with Microsoft's corporate messaging, calling the company's decision to cut roughly half the studio's staff a death sentence for the kind of games id is known for.

Chris Hayes, lead services provider at id Software, spoke out in an interview with Andre Peschke on the Well Played podcast. His verdict was blunt: "It is hard to make a game that is triple-A, that is like we've done before, with half the people. And by hard I mean impossible." Triple-A, or AAA, refers to the highest-budget, highest-production-value tier of video game development — the category that includes 2016's Doom and its 2020 sequel, Doom Eternal.

Microsoft announced 3,200 job cuts across its Xbox division in 2026 as part of what it called an "Xbox reset," with 1,600 effective immediately and the remainder to follow Eurogamer. A WARN notice filed in Texas confirmed that 136 developers were laid off from id Software specifically — approximately half of the studio's entire team GamesIndustry.biz Game Developer.

After the layoffs, Microsoft and studio leadership reportedly reassured remaining staff that "we are still the same id." Hayes pushed back hard against that line. "We're not the same id," he said. "We're half the same id." He said he believes the reassurances were designed to stop remaining developers from leaving, and claimed they came from talking points Microsoft provided to studio heads.

Microsoft has insisted that id Software now has a similar number of developers as it did when 2016's Doom shipped. Hayes had a ready answer: "There's a reason they say 'close to', because it is less."

He also questioned how "poor sales" can even be measured under a subscription model. Microsoft's Game Pass — a monthly subscription service offering access to a library of games, similar to Netflix for video — has increasingly become the primary way many players experience id's titles. Hayes raised the problem of defining commercial success when games are available on a subscription rather than sold individually, calling into question the financial logic used to justify the cuts.

Of those responsible for the decision, Hayes was unsparing: "They don't understand art, they don't understand games, they don't understand the business model" PC Gamer. He added that Microsoft "burned a lot of bridges" across the games industry.

Reporting from multiple outlets described morale at id Software as having never been lower following the layoffs Metro.

John Carmack, who co-founded id Software in 1991 and remains one of the most respected figures in game development, offered a characteristically dry response on his official X account. He wrote "2026 is awesome!" and said he had been trying to find something meaningful to say about the layoffs, describing id Software as a marginal business from Microsoft's perspective.

id Software was one of several Microsoft-owned studios affected by the 2026 cuts. Other studios under the Xbox umbrella were also hit as part of the broader restructuring.

For players, the practical question is what a half-staffed id Software can actually produce. The studio that effectively invented the first-person shooter with 1993's Doom, and set technical benchmarks for decades, now faces its next project with dramatically fewer hands. Hayes's assessment is that the output he and his colleagues were known for is, in his words, no longer possible at current staffing levels.