It's been a busy 24 hours on social media for one of the masterminds behind Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps and the upcoming No Rest for the Wicked, following a recent tweet that racked up a bunch of attention.
It all started with a suggestion that the best place to buy the Ori games was on Steam, because it doesn't help the developer Moon Studios (at least not anymore) if players experience it through Xbox Game Pass.
This ended up causing a big fuss, with Mahler eventually explaining that he's obviously happy for fans to buy these games on the Xbox Store, but he simply thinks that "most people don't buy games that they already get on Game Pass".
"Oh, sure, [buying them on Xbox] helps, too
Based on the numbers I'm seeing, most people don't buy games that they already get on Game Pass though, which... kinda makes sense."
He even went on to sing Microsoft and Xbox's praises, as well as Phil Spencer's comments about wanting to see more games across all platforms, but nevertheless he clearly received some backlash from so-called "console warriors".
Here's what the Moon Studios co-founder eventually ended up saying in a follow-up tweet:
"Oh no, I awoke some console warriors with one of my replies. Folks, I never cared what box you have under your TV and I don't care what 'side' you're on. I agree with Phil that all games should ideally be on all platforms."
"Imagine we would've had this craziness with films: "Oh, you can play this DVD on a Sony DVD Player, but this other one only works on some other brand!" It would've been madness. And the same is true for Xbox and PlayStation."
Here's a little tidbit for you: Under the hood, those boxes are pretty much identical. So who cares? Just let people enjoy good games! And yes, I will happily ban all obnoxious platform warriors that try to use me in these senseless arguments about which brand is cooler."
The response pretty much says it all here! Moon Studios obviously won't be profiting from Xbox Game Pass anymore, and therefore it's understandable they'd want players to buy the Ori games instead, with perhaps the only mistake being that Mahler neglected to include the Xbox Store (and Nintendo Store!) links in his initial tweet.
Anyway, the Ori games aren't really Moon Studios' biggest focus right now - instead, it's all hands on-deck for the upcoming release of No Rest for the Wicked, which arrives on PC in early access form this April. The ARPG is also scheduled for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, but there's no release date for it as of yet.