Back in July, XBOX conducted a major paring down of operations, including laying off 1,600 employees and returning ownership of two of its sub-studios, Double Fine and Compulsion, back to their founders.
The XBOX brand hasn’t exactly been synonymous with success following this landmark event, with game and hardware sales, as well as subscriptions to Game Pass, all floundering recently. In spite of all of this, there is at least one guy out there who still has confidence in the Game Pass model, and it’s a rather unexpected face given what I just explained: Double Fine founder and head, Tim Schafer.
In an interview with IGN, Schafer offered up his thoughts on the game industry following his company’s return to indie studio status, as well as its time working under Microsoft. In spite of everything, and there is a lot of everything, Schafer stressed that the Game Pass model of offering various games for a monthly subscription rate does still have merit, both to players and to developers of smaller games like his company.
Schafer Believes Subscription Services Lower the Barrier to Entry
In his interview, which was originally conducted at PAX West 2026, Schafer was asked what it...
