Id Software Developer Claims Xbox Lacks Artistic Vision, Citing Layoffs as a Barrier to Creating Major Titles Like Doom: The Dark Ages

Chris Hays, the lead services programmer at id Software, has been with the company for over 15 years and is one of the developers still on board after the significant layoffs at Xbox in July. While Xbox leadership believes that id can produce another game like Doom (2016) with a smaller team, Hays strongly disagrees, asserting that Microsoft lacks an understanding of both art and video games.

In a recent chat on a podcast, Hays candidly discussed the current state of id Software in light of the layoffs. The veteran developer, who has contributed to titles like Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages, expressed his concerns about Xbox, the layoffs, and the Game Pass service.

“It is hard to make a AAA game like we’ve done before with half the people. And by hard, I mean impossible,” Hays stated in a clip that has gained traction on social media.

“It’s tough to create a game when entire departments that are essential have been cut. Whole disciplines are missing. So 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.”

Hays mentioned that id management has been given “talking points” from Xbox regarding what they can communicate. He feels that Xbox is attempting to reassure the remaining developers that everything is fine and that id has a future, likely to prevent more departures from the studio.

“At the end of the day, most of it was just trying to tell us that, ‘oh no, everything is fine. And things will be okay,’” Hays remarked during the podcast. “The same lines that they said publicly, like, ‘Oh, well, [the studio is] the size of Doom 2016’ or ‘we’re close to that same size,’ and so we shipped that game, so we could ship another game. Things of that nature.”

When the host pointed out that the claim of id being the same size seems questionable given the credits of Doom (2016), Hays responded, “There is a reason they say close to, because it is less.”

Hays also shared his thoughts on Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service. Since id Software is part of Bethesda, which is owned by Xbox, all of the studio’s games are available on Game Pass from day one. This means a significant portion of the Xbox community on both console and PC doesn’t need to purchase new games from Microsoft. Yet, Hays noted that Xbox still critiques Bethesda’s sales figures.

In the closing moments of the clip, Hays criticized Xbox, claiming the company “fundamentally” doesn’t grasp the essence of art or video games.

“If you cut half of a studio and don’t consider how it’s made,” Hays said, “you don’t understand that the cohesion between our teams was a part of what made it successful.”

In July, the new head of Xbox, Asha Sharma, announced plans to cut 1,600 jobs that month, with an additional 1,600 layoffs expected by year’s end. These cuts are severe and will account for about 20 percent of Xbox’s total workforce. As a result of these layoffs and restructuring, Xbox has also divested from several studios it had acquired over the years, including Double Fine and Compulsion Games. In an email to employees last month, Sharma described the layoffs and studio changes as “the most significant restructure in Xbox history.”