Former PlayStation lead Shawn Layden has spoken out about his opinion on the state of Xbox Game Pass, noting that it’s in a grim state, and that might not be too off the mark. Xbox as a brand, let alone the Game Pass service, has had some rough past few years. From declining hardware sales to a lack of platform exclusives to the failed This is an Xbox campaign, Xbox as a platform has really never been at a lower point. That is to say that getting it back to form is going to be an uphill battle.
The new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, seems up to the task though. Sharma has already made comments about plans to make some significant changes. She’s stated that the subscription cost of Xbox Game Pass has gotten too high, and she’s right. $30 a month for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is outrageous. So, it sounds like Sharma’s plan to reinvigorate Xbox and bring it back to its glory days includes a price drop for the Game Pass service. It’s a good start. Sharma has also apparently hinted at mixing things up with Xbox exclusives. As a gamer, I was happy to see Xbox and PlayStation playing nice with each other and allowing more gamers to access their wonderful games.
The fact of the matter is though, games sell hardware. Like it or not, exclusives push the hardware sales further, and Xbox is currently lacking in that. Perhaps part of Sharma’s plan is to alter this a bit. Of course, Layden seems to think it might not be doable.
Ex-PlayStation lead says Xbox is “trying so hard to will this into health”
Shawn Layden saw the PS4 era through some great times. It was a very successful time for the brand and Layden is a well-loved icon within the PlayStation community. He also just loves games. That makes it all the more interesting to see him referencing Xbox Game Pass by saying that Xbox is trying so hard to will it into health. He might not be wrong. Game Pass has an uphill battle.
At $30 a month for the Ultimate tier, which is the only one that lets you have access to the biggest day-one games, it’s a lot more than many people are willing to pay. The Xbox team will have some work cut out for them in figuring out how to add value back to the service in addition to revisiting the price. At the same time, there might need to be something done about all those day-one games.
For the past few year, Xbox has been putting its biggest titles on Game Pass on day-one. That means people don’t have to buy the Xbox Series X|S to play them. And that has hurt Xbox hardware sales significantly. What’s more, is that it incentivizes not purchasing the game at all. Game Pass is great at the right price. But it may need an overhaul.
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