Xbox Game Pass: “A bit like communism”

While the Xbox crisis seems to be getting worse, “Ori” creator Thomas Mahler has now spoken out. In response to a reckoning from “Duke Nukem” maker George Broussard, he did not hold back on harsh criticism of Game Pass – and even compared the subscription service to communism.

Behind the scenes of Microsoft’s gaming division, the house is literally on fire: While insiders are talking about an upcoming… “Bloodbath” with mass layoffs and the closure of studios like Ninja Theory (“Hellblade”) or Compulsion Games („South of Midnight“) speculate, the debate is boiling over on social media.

Industry veteran and “Duke Nukem” creator George Broussard also took part in this, and in an X article he took stock of the years of mismanagement of the old Xbox executive suite.

He asked the fundamental question of who would ever be gigantic 100 million budgets for games like “South of Midnight” – and in a system like that Xbox Game Passwhich weans players from buying full-price titles.

A steep assist that Thomas Mahler, CEO of “Ori” and „No Rest for the Wicked“-Developer Moon Studios, did not miss it and immediately launched a sweeping attack against Microsoft’s subscription service.

“The software catalog just wasn’t nearly good enough”

As Mahler explains in a detailed article X explained that the fundamental problem with Xbox is not the concept of a game subscription like Game Pass, but rather the poor implementation and quality of the in-house games.

“I mean, the game pass strategy could have worked if people had jumped on it,” Mahler said. “The problem is, they’re not, and the software catalog just wasn’t nearly good enough to get people happy to pay the subscription every month.”

Mahler draws a comparison to the film and series landscape, where functioning subscription models are supported by absolutely exceptional titles: “It’s exactly the same as with streaming in the film business: I like to pay for my HBO subscription because HBO has fantastic content that I want to see. I would keep this subscription just to binge The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, etc..”

The problem with quality: “We got Starfield instead of Skyrim in Space”

In contrast to films and series, the gaming market works differently. The “new” factor is crucial for players. But if the quality of the new releases is not up to par, the house of cards collapses. According to Mahler, Xbox has simply failed to produce real system sellers in recent years.

“But in games, ‘NEW’ is damn important to players for some reason. And if your new content doesn’t even come close to the quality of the old content, you have a problem,” explained the Moon Studios boss.

“You need these games that your studios produce to become huge hits – cultural events that everyone wants to play. But what was the big Xbox game in the last few years that was just mind-blowingly good? That game doesn’t exist.”

Mahler became particularly clear with what is probably Microsoft’s biggest problem child in recent years: Bethesda. He explained: “Almost every single first-party studio has faltered in recent years. You would expect Bethesda to create a ‘Skyrim in space’ that should be better than Skyrim was back then because that’s an old game: but instead we got Starfield.”

The Communism Comparison: Lack of Incentives for Developers

Mahler sees the core of the problem in the internal structuring of Game Pass and the contracts with the development studios. If the financial success of a game is compensated for by a flat-rate subscription, there is no creative incentive to surpass oneself.

Here Mahler made a surprising comparison: “The Game Pass is, in a way, a bit like communism. And just like with communism, if you don’t give people a strong incentive to roll up their sleeves and go the extra mile, then they won’t do it.”

“And then if you don’t get the quality you need, the whole thing collapses. Because players won’t pay unless you essentially force them to by producing content so good that they feel like they’re missing out if they don’t check it out.”

Ultimately, according to Mahler, there is a lack of people in the management team at Xbox who understand the medium in depth: “And that is the core of the problem: You would need people at Xbox who understand gamers and their wishes deeply and fundamentally. They would have to understand what a good game is and what a mediocre game is. And they would have to have good deals with the developers so that they are actively motivated to produce gigantic hits – and not just crank out mediocre uniformity like on an assembly line.”

After all: After Microsoft after the price increases last October Millions of subscribers lost The turnaround followed under the new Xbox boss Asha Sharma at the beginning of the year. The costs have been reduced, „Call of Duty“ flew out of the offer as a day-one release and the number of subscribers has increased – as recently officially confirmed was – noticeably recovered.