Microsoft with gamepass (and other large game companies) are trying to do the gaming industry what Spotify did to the music industry. Blow the bottom out of it, get consumers used to subscriptions where money goes to massive companies not the artists actually doing the work, and let it all collapse into a heap so execs can do whatever they want because workers in the game industry have zero leverage left to dictate a higher quality of life since the path to profit has been carpet bombed by the finance industry (you don’t want to work for Microsoft or Sony? Oh sorry yeah nobody else can make money in video games so tough luck finding a job somewhere else).

Why now? Well unlike the movie industry, video game nerds have a stunted awareness of the value of unions and worker organization so in plain daylight the rich can drive the entire industry off a cliff, fire a huge percentage of the workers and try to replace them with AI… and worst comes to worst those companies will be in a great position to demand whatever they want from the remaining human labor after the dust settles even if the AI crap doesn’t work.

Good old Disaster Capitalism.