If “All Publishers” Dislike Game Pass, Why Do They Keep Putting Their Games On It?

The FTC trial for Microsoft’s eternally pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard undoubtedly revealed a lot of interesting industry information. Most of it was inevitable due to general laws of public disclosure, but some of it, funnily enough, was only made public because someone decided to redact the intended private bits with a Sharpie.

Regardless, among the numerous headlines the trial spawned, there was one quote from PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan that garnered a lot of attention, and it’s the following (as per The Verge): “I talked to all publishers,” Ryan stated in his deposition, “and they unanimously do not like Game Pass because it’s value destructive.”

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Well, that seems pretty definitive. Ryan apparently talked to all publishers, and none of them like Game Pass. Simple as that. Though there was, of course, no need to question Ryan about this, as he has no reason to be biased, Microsoft’s lawyer decided to push back a bit, which made Ryan reply, “I talk to publishers all the time, and this is a very commonly held view over many years by the publishers.”

Sarcasm aside, that is certainly an interesting statement to make, since it’s verifiably false. Don’t get me wrong; I’m sure some publisher execs do genuinely dislike the idea of the service and have little to no interest in putting their games on it, but what’s crazy is just how all-encompassing this statement was. Because publishers do put their games on Game Pass. And not just small publishers; big ones like Ubisoft, and WB. EA even includes its own EA Play service with Game Pass, allowing subscribers to play a ton of their games.

Nobody’s forcing publishers to do this. And it’s not as though Game Pass is so big that it would be a death sentence to stay out of it—far from it, in fact. So, what the heck is Jim Ryan even talking about? Activision and Take-Two? I mean, yeah, they tend to be the ones that stay most at arm’s length from Game Pass (though Take-Two recently put GTA V on it), but those are two publishers. Two big publishers, yes, but it’s still a stretch to say there’s a “unanimous” dislike of the service.

So, I repeat, what was he talking about? If so many publishers really hated Game Pass, you’d think they’d just not put their games on it. You’d think Xbox would be really struggling to fill the service up with games outside their first party, but they’re not. It seems like publishers are actually pretty happy taking guaranteed money upfront and enjoying an immediately large pool of players, or enjoying a nice sum of money down the line, once a game’s sales have slowed down. The founder of No More Robots, Mike Rose, came out and explicitly stated just how happy he was with the service and how he planned to continue supporting it with day-and-date releases.

Some people have quickly dismissed this comment from Rose, claiming it’s not relevant, as No More Robots is an indie publisher, but it was Ryan who made the blanket statement of “all publishers,” and, again, big publishers also place their games on the service.

The only conclusion I can come to is that Ryan meant that big publishers dislike putting their games day-and-date on Game Pass, as that’s the only thing that aligns with reality. And yeah, if a game is likely to be a big success, it’s just not smart to limit its sales by adding it to a subscription service at launch.

You never know just how much of a hit a game’s going to be, or how many copies it’s going to sell, so keeping that earnings potential unlimited for big games is often the smartest thing to do. But it’s pretty dishonest to turn that into the much less-nuanced and much more-definitive statement that “all publishers unanimously do not like Game Pass.”

This has led Game Pass detractors to tout louder than ever that the service is surely a detriment to the industry and that it will only result in lower-quality games due to how “value destructive” it is. Look, I can’t pretend to know what the future of the gaming industry holds, and if you think Game Pass will turn out badly in the long term, that’s a fair opinion. But don’t take the word of PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan to bolster your argument; that’s just kinda silly.

Of course he’s going to say it’s bad and value destructive, and that publishers don’t like it. It’s good for his case. But not only is this blanket statement incorrect, it doesn’t even matter. Even if all publishers unanimously hated Game Pass, so what? Since when should the average consumer be worried about what publishers think? You know, those entities that fill games with annoying and exclusionary monetization tactics and whose top priority is their bottom line? If publishers don’t like something, it’s probably because it gives more value to the consumer for less, and that doesn’t mean it’s a detriment to game quality.

Furthermore, big publishers choosing not to put their games day-and-date on Game Pass isn’t bad for the industry, because they’ll just, you know, not do it. The only entity that has to worry about it being “value destructive” is Xbox itself with its first-party offerings. However, Xbox actually gets the revenue from Game Pass subscriptions, which can increase indefinitely. Yeah, it may not work out well, and Xbox may suffer big losses if the service’s earnings can’t make up for development costs, but that’s Xbox’s burden to carry, not the entire industry’s.

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