Ed Fries, who was part of the team within Microsoft and founded the original Xbox, commented on many topics on the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast, including Xbox Game Pass. Accordingly, he stated that Game Pass is a great service for users, but the same is not true for the gaming industry.

Fries added: “The Game Pass service scares me. Because it is similar to the Spotify application created for the music industry. When Spotify came out, it ruined the music industry. He literally cut the annual income of his music business in half. This has caused people to no longer buy songs.

Users no longer purchase songs on iPhone. Because why would he? All of them are available in the subscription service Spotify app. Apple even announced that they will stop buying songs because no one buys songs anymore.

We have to be really careful about creating the same system in the gaming industry. These markets are more fragile than people think. In the early 80s, I saw the gaming industry self-destruct. That’s why Game Pass makes me nervous. As a user or player I love this service. As a listener, I also love the Spotify app. I have all the songs I want. As a customer, this is a very good situation. But I can’t say the same for the industry.”