A former PlayStation big wig has slammed Game Pass by indicating that the platform isn’t inspiring to game developers and makes them “wage slaves”, with Game Pass being an Xbox subscription service that offers gamers the opportunity to play new games and often view titles they may likely not even take an interest in if they weren’t available on subscription services. While there are Triple A games being put onto the service, there are also much smaller indie games making their way onto the platform and this has left many wondering if utilizing Game Pass is truly profitable for these developers.
During a recent interview with GameIndustry.Biz, former Sony Studios chairperson Shawn Layden spoke harshly about Xbox’s subscription service when asked about the comparable profitability of the service when contrasted with straight forward sales. However, Layden commented, saying, “That’s not the right question to ask. Companies can do all kinds of jiggery-pokery for any sort of corporate service to make it look profitable.” With this, it seems the only right question to pose would be whether or not game pass is, “healthy for the developer?”.
Layden, who was also a former strategic advisor for Tencent Games before leaving after a year and a half, further expanded on his view of the subscription service model for Game Pass, which makes developers “wage slaves”, by adding that the service is “not creating value” by putting a title on the market for the subscribers to have a try at. I think the comments being made here are a little bit of a reach if you ask me, and as many other fans will agree, games being put onto the service could be titles that otherwise get forgotten in a sea of gaming greats. Many developers have credited their game’s success to its performance on Game Pass, and with that, they were able to keep creating the games they wanted for their newly expanded audience of fans!
According to Layden, Game Pass is more like “you pay me X dollars an hour, I build you a game here, go put it on your servers”, and he shared that he doesn’t really think the Game Pass is “really inspiring for game developers”. Go figure when said person used to be a strategic advisor for a company that seemingly wanted to Robin Hood gamers out of their hard-earned cash by being overly greedy with their titles, and not only that, but they previously faced allegations of shamelessly copying popular games to capitalize on their “inspirations” success. Yeah, that Tencent!
As Layden concluded this negative critique of Game Pass, he ended by essentially saying that Game Pass developers don’t have inspiration when they are developing a title for the service. I don’t think this is true in the least, as the developers who are creating a title for the Xbox subscription service know that it will likely get more eyes and attention than if it were sold on the general market. Developers won’t half-cook something if they want to have a successful run and I fully believe that this comment towards said developers is not only unnecessary, but unwarranted.
Both PlayStation and Xbox differ in strategic marketing on their subscription services. Xbox releases first-party day one titles which are sometimes exclusive or timed exclusives, while PlayStation offers a large mixture of titles ranging from previous-gen classics to limited-time trials of newer games. While I believe both have a good mix of positives and negatives, I think that the services are both beneficial for gamers on a budget as well as smaller development studios, as they draw in a larger potential fan base for indie developers who would get overlooked in the general market.
The point is, for me, Layden did miss the mark with what he said regarding the Game Pass devs. However, I do get the point he was trying to make: some titles are rushed releases and can sometimes be detrimental to themselves when being pushed by out of touch executives, even when the title isn’t quite marketable. However, it seemed like Layden laid into the developers working with Xbox rather than the true culprits… people like him.
Do you all prefer Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, or buying games outright? Or are you guys more into getting the most bang for your buck by owning both platforms’ services? We here at Everything Nerd are multi-platform gamers and believe that both platforms offer unique and exciting ways to engage with and enjoy our favorite games!
