A lead developer at id Software has publicly criticised Microsoft over recent layoffs at the studio, saying it is now "impossible" to make triple-A games like 2016's Doom with half the staff. Chris Hayes, id Software's lead services provider, made the comments in a roughly 90-minute interview on the Well Played podcast, disputing Microsoft's claims that the studio remains fundamentally unchanged and accusing leadership of failing to understand how the studio's creative and business processes actually work.

Hayes rejected internal reassurances that "we are still the same id," countering that the studio is "half the same id" after losing entire departments and disciplines. He also disputed Microsoft's comparison of current staff numbers to those on 2016's Doom, and criticised the use of Game Pass to judge sales performance. The layoffs form part of a wider Microsoft "Xbox reset" announced last month, which cut 3,200 jobs across its gaming division, 1,600 of them immediately, with the remainder to follow.