Game Pass found a new unexpected defender this week.
Mike Brown was game director on Forza Horizon 5, before leaving Xbox to start his new game studio, Maverick Games. In a new interview with Minnmaxx, he said this about Game Pass:
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 that’s actually 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.
Mike went on to reiterate that Game Pass was a good idea that brought more games to more people, and that if it got more subscribers, the whole idea would have worked.
Brown’s statement came days after Jason Schreier revealed in another podcast that there are studio leaders in Xbox who ‘detest’ Game Pass and believe it’s devalued their games.
It would only be human if Xbox staff was split on Game Pass, but its fate is now up to Asha Sharma.
