Microsoft XBox Studio Leaders Upset at What the New CEO Did
3 days ago Rebellion Brewing at Microsoft
Quoting Schreier: "I think they keep it going, but at some point, they're just going to remove day one sales, because that makes no sense anymore. So, Matty, to your point earlier, you take a game like South of Midnight, that's a game that was not exactly critically acclaimed or anything, but the people who really loved it, really loved it, really spoke to them. And that's a game that costs $40 to buy, but on Game Pass, you can get it for, what was it, $15 a month, $20 a month, whatever it was at the point that that game was released. And so, not only is that kind of this, put this load on it that I can't really support as being part of the subscription service, trying to grow the subscription, it also is being completely devalued to the point where people might be like, why would I spend $40 on this when I could just get it on the Game Pass service for, quote, unquote, free, or for my monthly subscription charge? And that, I think, happened to a lot of games, and there are a lot of people out there in studio leadership within Xbox who absolutely detest Game Pass and think it has destroyed the value of their games, think it has taken away from the value of all games in general just as a service, and just has contributed a lot of just... It's been a detriment to the games industry and those people's views because of how it devalues games. And so, Netflix, I think, is a little bit different just because the stuff that is getting put on Netflix cannot be bought separately. You cannot go and buy Electric State or whatever."
There are now lawsuits over the layoffs in XBox, fans walk away, the brand is pretty much dead due to uncertainty, and the new CEO (less than 6 months on the job) became a two-word punchline.
From what we can gather, in 2024 XBox was already entering what's known as a "death spiral". Now it's literally moving down the drain/pipe.
The only question that remains is, how will Microsoft recycle the brand "XBox" (like it did "Surface") when the console is officially dead or no longer available on sale? █