'They Fundamentally Don't Understand Art' — Doom Dev Slams Xbox After Microsoft 'Gutted' id Software with Layoffs

Following the devastating layoffs at id Software in July, lead services programmer Chris Hays has lashed out at Xbox, saying, 'They fundamentally don't understand art.' Hays, who has been with the studio since 2010 and worked on classics like Doom Eternal, didn't hold back in a recent chat with Andre Peschke on the podcast Auf ein Bier. He was blunt about the impact of cutting 136 staff members.

'It's hard to make a game that is AAA, like we've done before, with half the people. And by hard, I mean impossible,' Hays said. 'It's hard to make a game when entire departments that you need are gutted, entire disciplines are gone. So, if they've got some kind of new plan for how this is going to work, that hasn't been told; we don't know what that is. The reassurances that we're still the same id and we're still going to do things—well, first of all, we're not the same id. We're half the same id. id was the people. What made us special was the people and the relationships we have.'

Hays was likely referring to id's statement to IGN on July 10, which thanked fans for support and claimed the studio was 'about the same size we were when making Doom 2016' after restructuring. It added, 'We still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we're known for.' But Hays sees this as damage control from Microsoft and Xbox to quell 'unrest.'

'Studio management is given talking points on things that are allowed to be said and what is not allowed to be said,' he explained. 'It feels like it is, instead, more reassurances. They don't want more people to jump ship and say, "Oh, there's no more future in id, so we're all going to leave," and then there's no one left. They don't want unrest. At the end of the day, most of it was just trying to tell us that, "Oh, no, everything is fine. Things will be OK."'

Hays revealed that id now has fewer staff than during Doom 2016's development. He acknowledged that fans have their favorites among the series but noted, 'There is a lot more that went into each of the Doom games that went along. We made bigger and better games, but that's with twice as many people as we had. So, we have fewer than we had before. So, are we going to make something equivalent to a single-player Xbox 360 game? Because that's the size of the studio we have.'

When asked why id was hit so hard, Hays said he has 'no idea' why the layoffs were distributed as they were. But the conversation turned to Game Pass, and Hays voiced his frustrations: 'On the ground level, we don't get to know what that is. We can have guesses just like everyone else. I know that we have serious issues with how Game Pass is done. Whenever we see the Microsoft financial reports that say there were poor sales under Bethesda, what's a sale if you have Game Pass? Are you saying that poor sales means poor number of games sold? Because, of course. You're not doing a game-sold business model. 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.'

The layoffs at id are part of a larger restructuring at Xbox, which new CEO Asha Sharma called the 'most significant restructure in Xbox history.' It initially affected 1,600 staff, with another 1,600 to follow over the fiscal year.

Hays said he would 'love to try to hit the goals that are set for' id, but those goals aren't clearly communicated. Instead, they're told to 'just make the best game we can.' He contrasted this with the pre-acquisition era under ZeniMax: 'Under ZeniMax, before the acquisition, that was also how it worked for attributing success. If we did well on a score for critical acclaim, and we had decently solid sales but they weren't meeting expectations, then that is a problem for marketing and sales. If you scored low, you didn't make a good game. They tried better to find that. That is obviously not how Microsoft is operating. It doesn't make any sense.'

When asked to elaborate on why Xbox and Microsoft don't understand art, Hays said, 'If you cut half of a studio and don't actually take into account how it's made, you don't understand that the cohesion between our teams was what was important. What made us successful.'

id Software released Doom: The Dark Ages last year and its Revelations DLC last month, which IGN rated 9/10, calling it 'Amazing.' For more, check out why one of our writers believes Xbox is dismantling its future to rebuild a past it can never recapture.