Everyone has been saying this for literal years...

Of course gamepass wasn’t/isn’t sustainable.

Thats just blindingly obvious.

Mr. Ryan, on behalf of all of Push Square's communities, I can sincerely say we are all sorry.

Pivoting back to exclusives also won't help. It'll make existing fans happy, but won't attract new players en masse, and it's not a financially sustainable strategy, especially with Game Pass.

Another Xbox article 🤣🤣🤣. One of the kids at this site attacked someone for calling this out and their answer was something like what happens at Xbox now effects PlayStation users.

This has nothing to do with PlayStation and due to the headline and subline an absolute trumpet blow.

I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner.

I imagine this will upset a lot of Xbox players. Everyone I know who plays on Xbox only really gets games off gamepass and buys nothing that's not already included in said subscription

"Does Ryan deserve an apology?"

No lmao, the guy made some of the dumbest decisions.

Interesting. From the (rumoured!) introduction of an “a la carte” model, I don’t see why the the claim of unsustainability should be proofed by that.

I see it as a normal evolution in flatrate models. I assume that Sky initially added football to its subscription without extra costs, and later they created several options. Same with Netflix, Disney+.

Typical “console warriors” article. As if the console war would still be on its peak. In 2026, the front lines are different.

Gamepass hollowed out the Xbox brand as simple as that.

It ate it from the inside out and all that is left now is a shell.

It's a bit sad really, I bet Phil Spencer still sleeps like a baby too.

@MasterChiefWiggum This is what I’ve been saying. They opened up because they very badly needed the extra sales. Closing it off again to appease Twitter fans flies in the face of trying to revitalize the brand.

No surprise that random online posters know less than people with years of experience in the business

Note to all the die hard gamepass defenders, please check behind you before back peddling; we don’t want people getting knocked down and trampled in the process.

It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. For the people subbed to the service since the beginning just for the day one games, I wonder how (or if) they'll accept this. The sales for Gears were what you'd expect, but kinda oddly the player count wasn't much to cheer either. They can pivot back to exclusives but the people need to show up for them. Even if it's unsustainable, it's hard to take all that away after all these years later imo.

@GamerDad76 yeah i feel the same ive never owned an xbox ive always owned each playstation console and i dip into nintendo consoles now and then but i dont understand the console war stuff.

I think by reporting xbox news on a dedicated playStation news site fosters this wierd mentality.

I dont really care what xbox/microsoft do but i dont wish them to do badly it seems the is a sort of bizzare schadenfreude with these articles.

Sharma's putting la carte before the horse.

I never for a moment believed that Gamepass was sustainable. The math just didn't work.

Looks like Colin was right yet again

"Does Ryan deserve an apology on this one? Was he right all along? It’s certainly beginning to look that way, isn’t it?"

No apology needed from me because I don't think I criticised Ryan, same with Hulst. I'm just not one to criticise discriminately when I don't know the ins and outs of what exactly is expected from a person in a certain position. It can look easy from the outside but probably deeper than that.

I've been saying this for years to Xbox diehards that it will eventually fail...

Jim Ryan gets no apology. He's the epicenter of the sweeping negative changes at Sony. He gets nothing but a one finger salute.

At the end of the day, this just proves Jim Ryan and the leadership team were right all along, no matter how much internet noise there was back then about 'player choice.' I just feel bad for the actual developers caught in the crossfire of executive flip-flopping. Good thing we’ve got a clear, consistent roadmap to keep us busy and we don't have to deal with that kind of existential corporate whiplash over here.

We have all been saying this.

Was the only reason I had an Xbox. Played so many great titles i wouldn't have otherwise. Looks like I can finally take an objective look at all the games I've missed over the past 2-3 gens and actually clear the backlog. I won't pay $1,000 plus for next gen regardless and no 1st party day 1 on Xbox for sure means I'll never own another Xbox. Think Ill start with the Yakuza series first

I never criticized Jim Ryan over his position on Day One’s, but he deserves no apologies. He wrecked a generation. Screw him.

@GamerDad76
We love watching train wrecks
😁

@Fiendish-Beaver Because everything’s great over on Team Green! Asha is a goddess, layoffs are good, studio closures/divestments are good, cloud gaming limitations are good, a $1,200 to $1,800 console is good, and GamePass cannibalizing sales is good.

@lacerz give him 1/3 of one then.. "so"

I have GPU stacked until March 2027.
I don’t think we will get a new option to have day one releases on game pass after the reshuffle.
Unless we have the option at some crazy high price per month.
So that will be the end of that for me.

I've always use Game Pass as a try before I buy service and have ended up buying loads of game I wouldn't have even considered otherwise.

If these rumours are to be believed then surely it just means that Game Pass will be even more enticing, allowing players to actually pick and choose what they want from the service.

There are far too many people here who completely dismiss Game Pass just because it's something they can't have.

And if this article is relevant to PlayStation then surely an article about the disc to digital programme or XBOX advertising for a new Games Supply Strategist would be just as relevant. 🤔

@Brundleflies21 lol nice!

I think even most Xbox gamers knew this wasn’t sustainable. Funny how MS kept insisting it was though!

@Fiendish-Beaver I've always said this, Gamepass is amazing for the players but bad for the studios...

He definitely doesn’t deserve an apology. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. As far as I know, most people already thought this about game pass.

They've had six glorious years of it which I was call not bad.

Its easy to say it isn't sustainable now but don't underestimate the pressure and stick Sony were taking at the time. I remember people even predicting the demise of the Playstation because of it.

@profprofessorson it was clear to see it was unsustainable when they started buying up 3rd party studios and releasing games on it day 1. Anybody with a basic understanding of economics could see why it would easily fail. The things that would have gave it more room to make it work they aren't willing to do, which is... completely strong arm the consumer.

How many articles on "gamepass bad/Sony was right" is that now?

Everytime there's a gamepass change or rumour, there's a gloating article on it.

It's pure fanboyism and the fact that any articles with "Xbox" in the title get so many comments on here is telling.

This is bad news for them either way, if they drop day 1 exclusive their numbers are going to plummet. They cannot expect their consumers will both pay for GamePass and buy new games at this point.

Hopefully this is the start of the end for this subscription models.