Lead services programmer Chris Hays has voiced strong criticism of Xbox and Microsoft following recent layoffs at id Software, stating that the company "fundamentally don't understand art" and the nature of game development. Hays, who has been with the Doom studio since 2010, described the decision to cut 136 staff in July as devastating.
"It's hard to make a game that is AAA, that's like we've done before, with half the people. And by hard, I mean impossible," Hays stated during a conversation on the "Auf ein Bier" podcast. He explained that entire essential departments and disciplines have been eliminated, making it impossible to maintain the studio's previous output. Hays dismissed assurances that id Software remains the same studio, asserting, "We're half the same id. id was the people. What made us special was the people and the relationships we have."
These statements follow an earlier message from id Software to IGN, which acknowledged being "impacted" by restructuring but claimed the studio remained "about the same size we were when making Doom 2016" and retained the necessary crew for its projects. Hays indicated that studio management is given specific talking points to manage employee unrest and prevent further departures, aiming to convey that "everything is fine."
However, Hays countered that id Software now has fewer staff than it did during the development of the 2016 Doom game. He questioned whether the studio could now produce anything more substantial than a single-player game from the Xbox 360 era, given its reduced size. Hays expressed uncertainty about the specific reasoning behind the widespread layoffs across id Software.
Discussing Game Pass, Hays admitted that on the ground level, developers lack insight into its business model's specifics. He revealed that id Software experiences "serious issues" with how Game Pass is implemented, particularly in relation to Microsoft's financial reports. Hays questioned the meaning of "poor sales" in the context of Game Pass, suggesting that the current model does not align with a traditional game-selling business.
"They fundamentally don't understand art. They don't. They don't understand art. They don't understand games. They don't understand that business model," Hays reiterated. He elaborated that cutting staff by half without considering the impact on team cohesion demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes a studio successful. The recent layoffs at id Software are part of a larger "reset" within Xbox, described by new CEO Asha Sharma as the "most significant restructure in Xbox history," which affected approximately 3,200 employees across various teams.
Hays also contrasted the current approach with that of ZeniMax, id Software's previous owner. Under ZeniMax, success was attributed through critical acclaim and sales, with marketing and sales teams addressing unmet sales expectations. He found Microsoft's current operational model, where teams are simply told to "just make the best game we can" without clear performance indicators, to be illogical.