Former leaders of Bethesda, Xbox, and PlayStation criticize Game Pass

Criticisms of the Game Pass business model of Microsoft have gained strength after industry veterans, including former Bethesda head, Pete Hines, spoke out against the service. What was once a concern behind the scenes has now become a public debate with the support of former leaders of PlayStation and Xbox itself.

Pete Hines, who led Bethesda for 24 years and left the company in 2023 after the acquisition by Microsoft Gaming, said in an interview that "I saw them take what I considered ill-conceived decisions, and it seems to have turned out the way I said." He was direct in his criticism by saying that "subscriptions have become the new four-letter word, right? You can no longer buy a product." Hines argued that the service model does not value the work of creators, saying that "you have to give proper recognition, compensate, and acknowledge what it takes to create that content and not just create a game, but create a product."

Hines' opinion was corroborated by other industry heavyweights. Shawn Layden, former leader of PlayStation, publicly wrote that Hines "is completely correct" in his assessment that services should value creative work. The chorus of criticism also includes Shannon Loftis, former vice president of Xbox Game Studios, who commented that "As a long-time Xbox first-party producer, I can attest that Pete is correct." Loftis added that the Game Pass "can achieve small victories for games that would otherwise sink," but that "most of the adoption in the Game Pass comes at the expense of retail revenue, unless your game is built from scratch for post-launch monetization."

The debate about the Game Pass is no longer a theoretical discussion. Hines' criticism, validated by Layden and Loftis, indicates that the subscription model, which attracts games like Starfield, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and DOOM: The Dark Ages, is creating an unsustainable environment for creators, prioritizing the quantity of content over the reward for the effort of making a game.