The well-meaning concept of Xbox Game Pass didn’t quite hit the mark, according to Forza Horizon 5 director Mike Brown.
During a recent interview with MinnMax, Forza Horizon 5 director Mike Brown talked about Xbox’s current situation following years of heavy investment in its Game Pass subscription service, studio acquisitions, and first-party game development. He expressed his disappointment over the recent wave of layoffs and studio closures, and argued that the issues originate from the economics of the service rather than bad intentions. “I think it’s really sad and I think it’s really, really unfortunate,” he said. “They’ve honestly invested a fortune in the concept of Game Pass as a service… all with a vision of getting regular games landing in this service for players.”
According to Brown, Microsoft’s ambition was to create an affordable subscription that would benefit both players and developers by funding a diverse range of games. However, he believes the service failed to reach the subscriber numbers necessary to support that vision. “I think the reality is not enough people have subscribed to it at the prices that they needed to pay in order to make that business viable,” he mentioned. “And that’s actually just really sad because we’re now going to see studios getting shut down or spun off. Loads of people are going to lose their jobs. And that is honestly just a result of a well-meaning player-focused concept of Xbox Game Pass not quite landing.”
Brown isn’t in favor of putting the blame on any specific people within Xbox for its current challenges. “As much as people point fingers and call different people within Xbox the villain of the piece, the concept of Game Pass was good,” he said. He termed the original vision as “a good idea,” explaining that an affordable subscription service offering a broad selection of games may have helped more players discover new titles while also enabling projects that otherwise could never have been funded.
