Xbox Leaders Reportedly Think Game Pass Is "Detriment" To The Industry
Xbox Studio Leadership "Absolutely Detest" Game Pass, Claims Insider
Xbox Game Pass was billed as an affordable way to game—an inexpensive subscription that gave you access to an extensive library of classics, indies, triple-A blockbusters, and new releases. A promise that has slowly eroded as Microsoft started pumping up the price to unreasonable levels, while confusingly renaming the tiers again and again.
The cracks really started to show when Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in 2023 for a historic $75 billion to bolster Game Pass subscriptions. Launching new Call of Duty games on the service day and date reportedly cost $300 million in potential sales. In response, the price was increased, day one titles were moved to the Ultimate tier, and it was eventually decided to pull future Call of Duty releases from the service entirely—all while hemorrhaging subscribers.
It's hardly surprising that, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, leadership “absolutely detest” Game Pass. “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,” Schreier said on the Triple Click podcast. “Think it has taken away from the value of all games in general just as a service and has contributed a lot of just—it’s been a detriment to the games industry and those people’s views because of how it devalues games.”
Industry Figures Have Been Outspoken Against Game Pass For Years
Many in the industry have openly spoken out against Game Pass and the fast-food-ification of gaming habits, with Arkane co-founder Raphael Colantonio telling TheGamer as far back as 2021 that, just like Spotify, “good luck making money.” He compared the player milestones on the service to streams on a music platform, and how even if you hit one million, “you’re never gonna make the same amount of money that you would if you were selling your songs.”
In 2025, Colantonio posted to X arguing yet again that “Game Pass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade,” echoing what Schreier claims those within Xbox leadership think. Larian Studios head of publishing Michael Douse responded, “‘What happens when all that money runs out?’ is the most vocal concern in my network, and one of the main economic reasons people I know haven’t shifted to its business model.”
In response to Schreier's claim, Lost In Cult head Ryan T Brown said that "publishers have been quietly saying this to each other for years" and that "most industry people think this." Indeed, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden argued that Xbox is "trying so hard to will this into health, despite unfavorable diagnostics and a grim prognosis," when what Game Pass really needs is "a clarifying post-mortem."
However, Schreier doesn’t believe that Xbox will pull the plug on Game Pass. Instead, it’s far more likely that they pivot away from day one releases. PlayStation has proven that a similar subscription service can work without sacrificing first-party blockbusters by focusing on the platform's legacy instead, and as Schreier says, putting these tentpole releases—with enormous budgets—onto the service at launch “makes no sense anymore.”