Xbox Game Pass subscriber shortfall fuels Xbox layoffs

Former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown told Kotaku that Xbox Game Pass has far fewer subscribers than Microsoft projected. The service, which aimed for about 77 million users, is estimated to have roughly 30 million paying members, a gap Brown described as “truly sad.”

He warned that the shortfall threatens studio viability, leading to closures, sales and job losses across the Xbox ecosystem. Brown said Microsoft invested “a fortune”—over $80 billion in studio acquisitions and project funding—to sustain the model, but the revenue has not materialised. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has acknowledged that the Game Pass bet has not paid off, and internal dissent about the strategy has been reported. The subscriber deficit is now seen as a central factor behind the recent large‑scale layoffs and restructuring within Xbox.

The criticism highlights broader doubts about the sustainability of Microsoft’s subscription‑first approach to gaming.