Raphaël Colantonio, the former co-founder and president of Microsoft-owned Arkane Studios, co-director of the acclaimed “Dishonored,” and director of games like “Prey” and “Weird West,” has publicly criticised Microsoft and Xbox’s Game Pass – voicing concerns over its impact on the games industry.
Microsoft has faced massive backlash this week over its recent laying off of about 9,000 employees from many departments this year, including big cuts at Xbox. The backlash was intensified by a Windows Central report claiming that the cutbacks are to free-up funding for investment in AI infrastructure and technology.
The cuts saw Microsoft’s Xbox division cancel multiple games in development like “Everwild” and “Perfect Dark,” and reducing staff at several of its developers. In the midst of all this, Colantonio posted a tweet saying: “Why is no-one talking about the elephant in the room? Cough cough (Game Pass)” before offering his take on the subscription service:
“I think Game Pass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, subsidised by MS’s ‘infinite money’. But at some point, reality has to hit. I don’t think GP can co-exist with other models, they’ll either kill everyone else, or give up.
…I’m fed up with all the BS they fed us at first like ‘don’t worry, it doesn’t impact the sales’, only to admit years later that it totally does. ‘No s— it does! Really?
The only way Game Pass can co-exist without hurting everyone is for the back catalogue. It’s a long game that involves throwing a tsunami at the entire ecosystem of the industry. Only the gamers like it because the offer is too good to be true, but eventually even gamers will hate it when they realize the effects on the games.”
When one Xbox fan pointed out the division is profitable, Colantonio says that’s true only if you ignore the billions acquiring content for Game Pass such as Zenimax and Activision and calling it essentially a “spreadsheet trick”.
The Game Pass model launched in 2017 and sees Microsoft’s new releases added to the subscription service on Day One and has been the single biggest differentiator between Xbox and other brands on the market. That hasn’t stopped the company from coming last among the big three this generation.
Some developers have sung the service’s praises, including those behind recent medium-sized titles like “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” and “Atomfall”. Others however won’t touch it, including Arrowhead Studios’ Xbox port of “Helldivers 2” with VideoGamer reporting that there are “definitely not” any plans to make the game available through Game Pass.
That said, there have been many questions swirling about the viability of Game Pass and its long-term impact on both direct sales and new game development in recent years – especially as subscription numbers have slowed since its early days.
Xbox claims the number of hours people are playing on Xbox “continues to grow fairly substantially,” in part due to Game Pass.
Source: PCGamesN
