Former PlayStation CEO sharply on Xbox Game Pass and other subscriptions. „The developer essentially becomes a wage slave”
The former PlayStation CEO doesn't like the idea of „Netflix for games,” saying it's bad for business. He also believes that subscription models have a bad effect on employees.
Shawn Layden was the CEO of PlayStation Studios from 2014 to 2019. Recently, he shared his views on subscription models, such as Xbox Game Pass. He believes that in the long term they will harm the condition of AAA games.
Subscriptions harm AAA games
The interview with Layden was conducted by GamesIndustry.biz. The businessman admitted that he is not a fan of the "Netflix for games" idea in the context of high-budget title releases. He claims that sharing them from the very beginning is "bad for business."
I'm not a big supporter of the 'Netflix of gaming' idea. I think it is a danger. The problem with gaming is all we have is launch. That's it. No one wants to pay money to come into the studio and watch people code.
He pointed out that musicians can make a lot of money by selling merchandise and concert tickets. Game developers don't have such options. He also pointed out the fact that the music industry has undergone a significant change due to streaming services, causing consumers to stop perceiving music as a product that needs to be purchased.
I mean, look what happened to music. In the popular mind, music costs nothing. Music should be free. Spotify, what is that? It's 15 bucks a month or something, but virtually no one buys music anymore.
In his opinion, the same fate may await the gaming industry if AAA titles are to be released on subscription services, although he admitted that indie games could benefit from them. He also expressed concerns about how such a system would affect the game creation process itself.
They're not creating value, putting it in the marketplace, hoping it explodes, and profit sharing, and overages, and all that nice stuff. It's just, 'You pay me X dollars an hour, I built you a game, here, go put it on your servers'. I don't think it's really inspiring for game developers.
"Wage slaves"
Layden even went so far as to make the bold statement that every developer becomes a "wage slave" because of the subscription model. However, many people on Reddit, who claim to be game developers, disagreed with this. They stated that they had always been just "wage slaves" and subscriptions didn't change anything in this matter.
I work in game dev at one of the bigger studios and have been around the industry. Idk when we were ever not wage slaves but okay.
During the conversation, Layden also talked about the profitability of Game Pass. However, he stated that the question of profitability is inappropriate, and what is much more important is whether it is beneficial for developers.
You can do all kinds of financial jiggery-pokery for any sort of corporate service to make it look profitable if you wanted to. You take enough costs out and say that's off the balance sheet and, oh look, it's profitable now. The real issue for me on things like Game Pass is, is it healthy for the developer.
It's worth noting that Layden's position partially overlaps with the opinion of Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two. He also believes that offering new AAA games in subscription services doesn't make sense.
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Author: Martin Bukowski
Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).
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