id Software dev says mass layoffs like Microsoft's are weakening the games industry, because developers 'don't have the incentive to care anymore'

id Software dev says mass layoffs like Microsoft's are weakening the games industry, because developers 'don't have the incentive to care anymore' "A lot of gamers, even if they don't know it, they can feel it's not right. There's something wrong." At the end of last month, id Software lead services programmer Chris Hayes offered a blunt appraisal of Xbox's management during an interview with YouTube channel Auf ein Bier, saying Microsoft's repeated mass layoffs have proved that its leadership "fundamentally don't understand art." Elsewhere in the interview, Hayes expanded the scope of his criticism beyond the immediate damage wrought by the latest round of Xbox cuts. But at the core, we don't have people at the helm who are looking at the long term to make the decisions to keep a healthy industry." 2026 games: All the upcoming games Best PC games: Our all-time favorites Free PC games: Freebie fest Best FPS games: Finest gunplay Best RPGs: Grand adventures Best co-op games: Better together Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.