Chris Hays, Chief Service Programmer at id Software, has been with the company for over 15 years. Following the massive layoffs at Xbox in July, he was one of the few developers who remained at the Doom development studio. Although Xbox and studio leadership claimed that id Software could launch games like Doom 4 again with fewer staff, Hays disagreed, stating that Microsoft "doesn't understand art" or video games.
In a recent interview on the Well Played podcast, Hays spoke candidly about the current state of id Software following the recent layoffs. The veteran developer, who worked on titles such as Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages, did not hold back his views on Xbox, the layoffs, and Game Pass.
"Making a AAA game like we used to with half the staff is too hard. And by hard, I mean impossible."
"When some of the departments you rely on are completely gutted and entire disciplines disappear, making a game becomes exceptionally difficult. So, those assurances that we are still the same team, that we will continue to do what we want to do—first of all, we are no longer the same team. We are only half of what we used to be."
According to Hays, id Software management received "talking points" from Xbox and were told what they could and could not say. He believes that Xbox's move seemed aimed at reassuring the remaining developers at the studio, making them believe that Everythinggj was under control and that id Software had a future, because Xbox did not want "more people to leave, leading to the studio eventually being ignored."
Hays said on the podcast: "At the end of the day, they just wanted to tell us, 'Oh, it's fine, Everythinggj will be okay.' The things they publicly said, like 'Oh, the studio size is similar to Doom 2016' or 'Our scale is similar too,' so that's why we were able to release that game, and then another one. Things like that."
When the host pointed out that, based on the number of names found in the credits of Doom 4, the claim by Xbox and id that the studio size was the same seemed questionable, Hays replied: "They say 'close' for a reason, because actually, the scale is smaller."
Hays also criticized Xbox's popular Game Pass subscription service. Since id Software is part of Bethesda, which in turn is part of Xbox, all id Software games are added to Game Pass on their release day. This means that most players on Xbox and PC platforms do not need to purchase any new Microsoft-published games. However, Hays stated that Xbox still questions Bethesda's sales figures.
"I know there are serious issues with how id Software operates within Game Pass. Whenever we see financial reports saying that sales during the Bethesda era were poor, we wonder, what does 'sales' even mean? If you have Game Pass, does poor sales necessarily mean low game sales? Of course not. Xbox's business model is not based on 'game sales.'"
At the end of the video, Hays also criticized Xbox, stating that the company "fundamentally" does not understand art or video games.