Chris Hays Criticized Xbox After Massive Layoffs at id Software— “They Fundamentally Don't Understand Art”

At the start of last month, as part of a major Xbox restructuring carried out by parent company Microsoft, plenty of gaming studios got hit by layoffs. One of the hardest hits was id Software, the studio behind the DOOM game series. Reports at the time suggested staff cuts were so severe the studio was essentially "dead," with all its in-progress projects reportedly canceled.

Nevertheless, id Software representatives have shown signs of life in an official statement, thanking fans for their support and confirming its team is now roughly the same size it was during DOOM (2016)'s development. Rumors have also emerged that, despite the mass layoffs, the studio is already working on a new franchise entry.

Even a month later, the controversy around id Software hasn't really faded. On a recent episode of the "Well Played" podcast, former id Software developer Chris Hays, who also left the studio in July due to layoffs, criticized Xbox, claiming that “they fundamentally don’t understand art.” According to him, management has let go of a huge number of highly skilled specialists, not just at id Software, making it nearly impossible going forward to build major AAA projects like DOOM. You can check out Hays' full comments below:

“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. It's hard to make a game when there are entire departments that are gutted that you need, entire disciplines that 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' comments do seem to hold up—as reported by Game Developer, about two-thirds of the staff who worked on DOOM (2016) have since been laid off. Hopefully the studio can work through the fallout from July's restructuring and find its footing again.

Last month, id Software also released a new DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages, Revelations. It's been well received by critics, currently sitting in the top 10 highest-rated games of the year on Metacritic with a score of 89.