Opinion - In Defense of Game Pass

Game Pass is Not Hurting the Industry

This is potentially going to be a polarizing article, but hey, what’s the point of having a Substack if you can’t write your thoughts down? We received some horrible and shocking news as Microsoft’s Xbox division was the subject of massive cuts, leading to game cancellations and studio closures. This brought up the ongoing issues with the industry’s business side out to debate once again, with a new twist of blaming Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service for the woes of the industry, or what just happened at Xbox. Well, I’m here to not only defend the service but also point out why blaming it for the industry’s issues doesn’t make sense.

The Buck Stops Here

Before I begin, let me address a few points, as I anticipate that someone will read this and claim I’m being an Xbox fanboy or defending leadership. Phil Spencer should know the buck stops with him. President Harry Truman made the saying famous as he took all the issues during his time in office on the chin, even if it made him unpopular, because he believed he should take the sunshine and the rain. That is how leaders act. Phil has been the head of Xbox for a decade, and quite frankly, most of it has been him lying or changing his mind on numerous things. Wait and see has been the motto of Xbox, and for the most part, there’s still a lot of waiting. He deserves his flowers for saving Xbox after the disastrous Xbox One launch, but you can only rest on that for so long. I wrote an article a while ago comparing Phil to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who saved the Walt Disney Company and ushered in the Disney Renaissance, only to become the villain and be ousted in the end. I fear Phil may be entering that final stage of the Eisner comparison.

Matt Booty and Aaron Greenberg are the two I’m most critical of. What does Matt even do? The so-called head of the studios has now been involved in multiple studio closures and the cancellation of games. Aaron has been the head of marketing and has just plain sucked at it. The best marketing has come from the two publishers Microsoft acquired, Bethesda and Activision. As for Sarah Bond, I feel she’s the least to blame, as it’s apparent she’s being groomed to be Phil’s successor, but obviously, I hope she’s seeing some of the reactions and learning from this period. One of the reasons Lyndon Johnson became our most successful legislative President is that he was a part of Congress for a long time and witnessed the mistakes made by previous Presidents, learning from them.

However, I also would argue that there wasn’t much any of these guys could do. The real culprit in these cuts is the man I named my 2024 Person of the Year in gaming, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Last year, I pointed out that Nadella had forever impacted gaming by allowing Phil and Xbox to go all in and acquire Activision-Blizzard. He approved it, and that’s why he was my pick for the most impactful person in the industry last year. Well, he’s having more impact, but now in a negative way. Nadella has become OBSESSED with AI. There are reports of him using Copilot so much that it’s like an addictive Facebook boomer going through your uncle’s wacky and offensive memes. The tech industry at large has become obsessed with AI, but from what I’ve seen and heard, Nadella appears to be especially preoccupied with it.

Now look, I’m the poor guy in the middle when the AI debate starts. I’m not a fan of generative AI and I do think there are real issues with the technology that should be addressed in a government level. I also champion the use of AI as a tool and see its potential in small daily tasks, as well as its potential benefits for disabled communities. That being said, just as happened in the late 90s with the internet, a bubble is forming here, and the industry will feel the consequences severely when it bursts. They are cutting thousands and thousands of jobs, in the hope that this bet with AI will pay off. While I do think some of it will pay off, a lot of it won’t, and with the coming recession, it’s only going to lead to more pain. Nadella told Phil and other Microsoft divisions to make cuts, and they did what their boss told them to. But if I’m Xbox leadership, I don’t feel as confident as before in his commitment to gaming.

The Game Pass Problem?

Since the cuts were made, Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service has become a hot topic, with numerous gamers online blaming it for the state of not just Xbox but the entire industry’s problems. Let’s get some of this criticism out of the way by mentioning that a lot of these people are console-warring PlayStation or Nintendo fanboys who don’t want to have a nuanced discussion about this. Now, let me address those who aren’t like that and want to have a genuine conversation here. Let’s start with the accusations leveled at it and legitimate concerns. The founder of Arkane has squarely pointed the finger at the service for being bad for the industry. A couple of others have voiced concerns, although I have to be real with you guys that some of those voices are hard to take seriously as they include a former PlayStation executive.

Does Game Pass have any negative effects? I think whenever you make a game available day and date on a monthly fee service, it’s going to affect individual unit sales. It’s just plain common sense. This could be the reason for games like Doom: The Dark Ages or South of Midnight not having the most stellar sales numbers. However, what’s the excuse for a Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a game that wasn’t day and date on Game Pass and still underperformed? That’s not a Game Pass problem if you ask me. Oh wait, what about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Lies of P, both of which were day and date on the service but still found individual sales success anyway. It feels like there’s some cherry picking here.

Talking about cherry picking, what about the developers who have called it an excellent service for them? These are creators of smaller games who have said Game Pass has been a godsend to them, bringing more eyeballs to their games that wouldn’t have been there without the service. Plus, what about the real elephant in the room? Game Pass is reportedly ruining the industry, with approximately 30 million subscribers, all of whom are on Xbox consoles, by the way. However, a service like PlayStation Plus, which is on the much more successful PlayStation 5, doesn’t ruin it. So apparently, Xbox is so powerful that those thirty million Game Pass members are destroying the industry, even though we have a steady 100+ million user base on PlayStation and Nintendo both, compared to Xbox’s 30+ million. Oh yeah, I guess that means GameFly is hurting the industry too, right? The math doesn't math.

What's the real issue with the industry? It's not subscription services, it's the black hole live service games that many of the same people who have made hating Game Pass a part of their personality play every day. The free-to-play model and the forever black hole games are sucking time and money away from the industry. People are so busy playing Fortnite and similar games that they spend their money on a Ninja Turtle skin instead of a new game, which just so happens to require big-time profits because its budget is way over, and the game was too expensive to make. That’s the real issue here. Analyst Matt Piscatela has stated that he views live services as a greater issue to the industry than subscription services. It’s mind-boggling to me that people will claim a 30+ million user base is the reason the other 200+ million (not counting the many more on PC and mobile) are the reason for the video game industry’s problems.

Why I Love Game Pass

One of the things that’s never brought up about Game Pass, and maybe its because its a bunch of adults screaming at each other on their keyboards, is how freaking awesome this is for gamers who have less resources or money to play the latest and greatest, specifically kids. Let’s take a trip to my past when I was a kid. I was blessed to have parents who supported my video game hobby, despite not fully understanding it, but they also couldn’t afford to get me a new game every month. I waited until Christmas to ask for a game I really wanted for my N64 or GameCube. However, I still got to play some of the biggest and most iconic titles for those two consoles almost once a week. How? Blockbuster Video.

Once a weekend, my parents would stop to rent movies, and they would let the kids decide which game to rent. This is how I got to play some of the greatest games of all time, despite not owning them. This is literally happening right now. I know of someone who got their child an Xbox Series S, and they use Game Pass to help them save money. This is a service that helps kids who may have had to beg their parents for a console, and now they can get the latest games without having to do more begging. This was my childhood, where I would beg my mom and dad whenever I wanted anything to do with gaming, and Blockbuster was a huge help. If Game Pass were around back then, it would be the same thing. It’s also a help to college students or even adults with financial struggles who pay the monthly fee to access all these games they can’t afford to buy. I know this because without Game Pass, I would not be able to make top ten favorite lists, the amount of games I could play would be smaller, and with my current challenge, tackling credit card debt, the service is only that much more beneficial.

It’s easy for many gamers who love to post their big collections and easily buy games to write off why someone would use this service. But not me. I think about what I went through as a kid, or the rise of valuables and necessities, which are only going to get worse in this administration. That’s why I love Game Pass. I know this service has helped those kids who were in a similar situation to mine, as well as adults who need help today. So, we can argue about profitability and all that, but I want to see new gamers having access to games and some of the same memories that I had with those younger gamers.

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