It hasn’t even been a week since Microsoft dropped a bombshell in the worst way by letting go of numerous people within its company, including many within its gaming division, and even shut down some studios. The impact of this is still being felt, and rage against the actions of the higher-ups of Microsoft is high. After all, many saw this as needless, given the company’s overwhelming profits. Even the Xbox brand was making money year-over-year, which should’ve been a sign of growth, but instead, bad things happened. Even with that, the company still touts the Xbox Game Pass as one of the best things around and something they’ll continue to push going forward.
Others in the gaming space, including those who used to work for Xbox, aren’t so sure, though. Raphaël Colantonio is the man behind Arkane Studio and helped direct the first Dishonored game. He’s proven his savvy in the gaming world, and on Twitter, he made some posts after the layoffs that made it clear that he wasn’t thrilled by what Xbox was keeping and what it was letting go:
“Why is no-one talking about the elephant in the room? Cough cough (Gamepass). “I think Gamepass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, subsidized 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.”
If that’s enough for you, he claimed that Microsoft and Xbox lied to them about what the Xbox Game Pass would offer studios like Arkane through its “sales.”
“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.”
As you might expect, there were some on Twitter who tried to defend Xbox and the Game Pass, even calling the director a “failed creator” or blasting him for wanting people to pay the full $70+ for video games when Game Pass is “Much cheaper.’
Thankfully, the game dev took it in stride and held his ground, citing various reasons why things he said were true. He’s not alone in not liking Game Pass either, as many in both studios and in the gaming fan base have blasted it in the past, and some game devs refuse to put their games on it at all.
