The Xbox Game Pass subscription from Microsoft is currently going through a rough phase as according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft had originally anticipated Game Pass subscriptions to reach somewhere around 77 million this year, but it currently has hit only about 30 million. Also, based on the FTC vs Microsoft trial in 2023, the company had hoped for a whopping 100 million subscribers by 2030, which seems highly unlikely given where the numbers are at right now.
And now, former Forza Horizon 5 director and ex-Playground Games employee, Mike Brown, who went on to found his own studio named Maverick Games and is now set to release a new open world racer titled Clutch, has opened up on the current predicament of Xbox Game Pass. In a recent interview with MinnMax, Brown has stated the following:
“I think it’s really sad and I think it’s really unfortunate. They’ve honestly invested a fortune in the concept of Game Pass, which led to loads of teams being acquired, loads of games being funded, loads of people getting jobs, all with a vision of getting regular games landing in this service for players.
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, and now that’s 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. And I think that’s just, it’s just a real shame.”
However, there’s also a valid reason why subscription services haven’t managed to gain as much momentum as the publishers would’ve liked is cause they place too much control in the hands of the companies and almost none to the actual players and if services like Xbox Game Pass continue to become more successful in the near future, there could be a time when the megacorporations who control the industry simply decide to make the entire medium run solely on subscriptions which means players would lose all control over their games altogether.
