I’ve long been a supporter of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Game Pass. I truly believe that it democratises gaming, giving players as many triple-A titles as they want for a far more reasonable price of $2🙈0 per month. Plenty of kids who live near me couldn’t afford a $60 game, let alone a $70 game, but their parents could get enough money together for a Game Pass subscription each month.

You don’t even need a console to use Game Pass – Play Anywhere lets you run even the highest-spec games on your mobile phone. The technologꦕy is nothing short of astounding. Sure, it’s been replicated by Nvidia and attempted by Google, but Xbox has made it work and made it available to the masses.

Then I c♈ome to indies. Many developers I’ve spoken to have namechecked Game Pass deals as lifelines at a time when the industry is especially volatile, players are tightening their pursestrings, and sales are by no means guaranteed. I’ve discovered plenty of boss indie games just by scrolling through the Game Pass offerings and downloading one that looks decent – Cocoon stands out as an all-timer, as does Tales of Kenzera: Zau. H*ck, Citizen Sleeper, my favourite game of all time, is on there.

But I’m cancelling my Game Pass subscri🐭ptio⭕n today, and so should you.

Microsoft Doesn’t Care About Developers

While Game Pass represents a good deal for players, signing with Microsoft clearly doesn’t represent a good deal for developers. Xbox has just begun its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:fourth round of layoffs in 18 months, cutting as much as foꦰur percent of its workforce, despite the fact that Xbox head Phil Spencer began the lay🌠off announcement by saying that the company’s “platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger.”

Developer 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Initiative has been shuttered c𒆙ompletely, with the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Perfect Dark remake it was working on cancelled. The Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax has 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:cancelled an upcoming MMORPG in the wake of layoffs. Everwild, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the beautiful action-adventure game that has been in development for a decade, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:has been cancelled as its team at Rare was laid off.

Forza Motorsport developer Team10 has seen , and Call of Duty developer Raven has found itself in th🍌e firing line, too. It seems that Xbox was also publishing Romero Studios’ next game, which has now been cancelled as legendary develop♏er and studio founder he is “evaluating next steps and working quickly to support [his] team.”

It’s no wonder that Tales from the Mabinogion developer Stevan Anastasoff told me that he felt more secure launching his own in🧜die studio than working for a triple-A.

All this has made it clear that Microsoft doesn’t care about developers, and I’m not certain it cares about games, either. Why else would it abandon games that fans are looking forward to playing, whaꦓtever state they may be in? Why else would it shut down Tango Gameworks after the hugely successful launch of Xbox exclusive Hi-Fi Rush?

What Went Wrong?

Were we all duped? Hoodwinked by clever marketing that positioned Xbox as the ‘good ♏guys’ of the console war? I don’t think so. I maintain that Game Pass is a good thing for players, but if Xbox couldn’t make the subscri✃ption model profitable, then that’s on leadership.

After all, Microsoft can still afford to spend billions of dollars on unnecessary acquisitions (Candy Crush developer and World of Warcraft developer were also affected by yesterday’s layoffs). It can still in the ongoing invasion of Gaza. But it still neeꩲds to cut almost 9,000 jobs when Xbox has “more pla🥂yers, games, and gaming hours than ever before”?

🅷Something isn’t right. Some people at Xbox don’t know how to run a business, or a portfolio of game studios, or both. And I’ll wager that those people aren’t the ones scrambling for work right now.

What Can We Do?

We, as players, have only one power: our wallets. If you didn’t already cancel your Game Pass subscription 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:when the prices were hiked up – a wildly anti-consumer move that reeks of desperation – 🌄now is the best tim🌱e to do it. It’s a handy service for us, but if developers are getting shafted because of its unsustainability, then it’s time to let go.

But there are ways we ca▨n better use that money. I’ve just cancelled my Ultimate subscription, so I’ve got a bountiful US$20 a month to spend freely. Firstly, I’m going to watch for any studios that rise out of the ashes of The Initiative or any other shuttered studios. I sus♚pect Romero Games will find a new publisher that I can financially support with a pre-order or wishlist (although I’ve vowed against the former due to not knowing what state games will launch in these days).

I’ll look to Patreon and scour my Steam wi♈shlist for recent indies that I’ve missed. I’ll support independent developers, games that don’t get the opportunity to showcase a🐟t Summer Games Fest or an Xbox sizzle reel. I’ll inevitably end up committing far more than my $20 to the countless cool games and studios I find, but as long as that money’s not going to Microsoft, I can live with that.

People have pow🉐er. We can launch the careers of indie developers, we can propel the most niche games to the stages of award ceremonies, and we🅷 can save those who are unfairly cast aside by a successful corporation. Xbox doesn’t need your money, developers do.