Jason Schreier says several executives within Xbox’s internal studios hate Game Pass because they believe the subscription service has devalued their own video games. The journalist believes Microsoft could eventually stop releasing its first-party titles through Game Pass on day one.

When Microsoft launched Game Pass, the idea was to turn the service into the Netflix of video games and attract millions of subscribers willing to pay a monthly fee. For years, the industry has debated whether releasing an AAA game through Game Pass cannibalizes its traditional sales, but the discussion has now expanded to whether this strategy actually benefits the studios responsible for creating those titles. Although Microsoft has not announced any changes to Game Pass, one of the industry’s most reliable journalists says there is significant internal division surrounding the subscription service.

Several Xbox Studio Executives Hate Game Pass

Jason Schreier, a Bloomberg journalist, revealed on the Triple Click podcast that numerous executives within Xbox’s internal studios “absolutely hate” Game Pass because they believe the service “has destroyed the value of their own games.” “There are a lot of people in management at Xbox studios who absolutely hate Game Pass and think it has destroyed the value of their games,” Schreier said, adding that some of them are now questioning whether continuing to build their teams’ strategies around the service is genuinely worthwhile.

“They believe it has diminished the value of all games in general, reducing them to a service-only model, and that it has been detrimental to the industry,” Schreier explained. This internal dissatisfaction did not emerge without precedent, and the journalist believes Microsoft could eventually change its strategy of releasing first-party games through Game Pass on day one, moving closer to Sony’s model with PlayStation Plus. “I think they’ll keep it going, but at some point they’ll simply eliminate day-one releases because it no longer makes sense,” he said.

It is important to note that Schreier’s statements combine information attributed to internal sources with his own opinion, so they do not currently indicate an official change in Xbox Game Pass strategy. Despite Game Pass reportedly losing millions of subscribers during the past year, Microsoft continues to regard the service as a strategic pillar of the Xbox ecosystem. Internal documents leaked during the legal proceedings surrounding Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard revealed that the company once expected Game Pass to surpass 75 million subscribers by 2026. Sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, however, indicate that the service currently has approximately 30 million subscribers, four million fewer than the official figure of 34 million Microsoft confirmed two years earlier.

Source: 3DJuegos