Over the weekend, the founder of Arkane Studios (Raphaël Colantonio) attracted a lot of attention on social media for sharing his view of Xbox Game Pass, suggesting that it's "unsustainable" and increasingly damaging the industry.
In a series of posts, Colantonio explained that although he acknowledges it's a good deal for gamers, he doesn't see how it can continue operating like this indefinitely - a sentiment shared by Baldur's Gate 3's director of publishing (known as Cromwelp on Twitter), who questions what will happen when "all the money runs out":
Here's a look at their exchange (be warned of some expletives ahead!):
As you can imagine, there are a lot of people who disagreeing with the Arkane founder as well, with many pointing out how Xbox Game Pass has been beneficial for indie developers and games that may never have even existed without it.
Ultimately, this is just a game of opinions and Microsoft is showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to Xbox Game Pass - so don't go expecting any major shifts in that strategy anytime soon. In fact, 2025 has perhaps been the best year ever to be a Game Pass subscriber, so clearly they're still investing in the service in a major way.