A lot of the leaders at Xbox studios absolutely hate its premium game subscription service, Game Pass, according to a report.
During a recent episode of the Triple Click podcast following Xbox’s layoffs and restructuring, co-host and Bloomberg investigative journalist Jason Scrheier revealed that not everyone within the company believes its premium game subscription service, Game Pass, has been a success.
While discussing the future of Xbox’s publishing strategy, the investigative journalist suggested that Microsoft is moving away from the core philosophy behind Game Pass. Smaller, critically acclaimed titles such as South of Midnight, Hellblade, and other AA experiences were initially seen as ideal additions to the subscription service. However, with Game Pass reportedly plateauing at roughly 35 million subscribers, well below Microsoft’s expectation, the company appears to be shifting its focus toward blockbuster franchises instead.
According to Schreier, this change in direction isn’t surprising given the negative sentiments towards Game Pass among many leaders at Xbox studios. “There are a lot of people out there in studio leadership within Xbox who absolutely detest Game Pass and think it has destroyed the value of their games,” he mentioned. “Think it has taken away from the value of all games in general just as a service and just has contributed a lot of… it’s been a detriment to the games industry… because of how it devalues games.”
The investigative journalist argued that Game Pass creates an awkward business dynamic for Xbox first-party studios. A game sold at retail for 40 or 70 US Dollars is immediately available through a monthly subscription, giving consumers little incentive to purchase it outright. He brought up South of Midnight as an example of games that may have been devalued by launching day one on the subscription service.
That said, Schreier doesn’t believe Game Pass is going away anytime soon. Instead, he speculated that Microsoft may eventually eliminate day-one releases from the subscription service, as he believes the current model no longer makes sense from a financial standpoint.
