Developer Disputes Jim Ryan’s Views On Xbox Game Pass

gameranx.com:

When it comes to Game Pass, it was recently under some heavy fire from Sony Interactive Entertainment head Jim Ryan. I’m sure you are all aware of the current FTC trial going on right now with Microsoft. This all stems from the purchase of Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft bid a whopping $69 billion for. Of course, with this trial going on, some interesting comments and documents surfaced online for Microsoft. For instance, we learned that Microsoft was interested in acquiring Square Enix before moving on to Activision Blizzard. One of the comments that made headlines recently was Jim Ryan’s view of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

If you didn’t catch the news, Jim Ryan made a bold claim stating none of the publishers liked Game Pass. It was a subscription model that Jim Ryan was scrutinizing, and to make a broad claim that Microsoft didn’t have any publishers backing this service, it was only a matter of time before people came out. One of them spoke up about their views on Game Pass through Eurogamer. Recently, the publication posted an interview with Miles Jacobson, the studio head of Sports Interactive, which Sega owns.

Miles had nothing but positive things to say during the conversation about Game Pass. In fact, Miles credited services like Game Pass and Apple Arcade as they helped turn over even more players for their Football Manager franchise. Specifically, the studio noted that they saw double the amount of players for Football Manager 2023 when they released the game on the mentioned subscription services. 

Every studio has to make decisions themselves, but I don’t recognize some of the quotes that I see from other studios, and depositions. I don’t recognize that in our business. It’s all