For months, XBOX has been accumulating a lot of negative news that pointed in the same direction: massive layoffs, cancellation of games and the departure of several studios after the layoff of 3,200 employees. It is evident that the Microsoft strategy in video games wasn’t working as expected, and much of that could be related to XBOX Game Pass, which hasn’t grown as expected over the past few years. On this topic, the one who was wanted to give your opinion director of Forza Horizon 5.

The director of Forza Horizon 5 does not see XBOX Game Pass as viable

Mike Brown, who directed Forza Horizon 5 and left Playground Games in 2023, has stated in an interview with MinnMax that Xbox Game Pass “not viable” because it never managed to gather enough subscribers at the price the company needed to charge. “The reality is that there are not enough subscribers so that the business is viable.” Brown was asked about the wave of layoffs that XBOX is going through and did not hesitate to point out a phenomenon that we will continue to see in the coming years.

The British creative considers that part of the cuts that XBOX has made It has been because Game Pass has not worked as it should. “Let’s see closed or separate studiosand many people are going to lose their jobs. And honestly, that’s the result of an Xbox Game Pass idea designed for the player who, deep down, it has not finished curdling“, indicates (via Eurogamer). Despite this, Brown sees the existence of Game Pass as a “good idea” since it “offers a very diverse selection of titles.”

The current director of Clutch at Maverick Games (future competitor of Forza Horizon) has also dedicated some words to Sarah Bond, who was president of XBOX for a time. “Every time she spoke, she was so insightful and intelligent and impressive. She’s one of those people that you can almost relax a little bit listening to her talk because you feel a little comforted seeing how competent she was.” In related news, a few days ago Jason Schreier commented that Game Pass has many detractors within XBOX and that some game directors consider it destroys the value of their games.

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