Former id Software Producer Criticizes Xbox Game Pass Management and Doom Inclusion

Former id Software producer Andrew Willis recently shared candid criticisms regarding Xbox Game Pass. Willis, who was impacted by job cuts at id Software in July, described the subscription service as extremely poorly managed. According to Willis, the platform was executed with little foresight, attention to detail, or understanding of the consumer market. He suggested that Microsoft fell into a trap of trying to make everything function like Netflix.

Willis pointed out that Microsoft struggled to determine how to measure the success of Game Pass. He noted that developers and colleagues never heard clear metrics they needed to hit, questioning whether success was measured by hours played, games installed, or user retention. Willis specifically argued that Doom: The Dark Ages had no business being on the platform. He questioned whether the game would have sold better if it had not been available for subscribers to play through the service.

While Bethesda reported that Doom: The Dark Ages achieved the biggest launch in id Software history by reaching three million players quickly, reporting indicated that a vast majority of those players were on Xbox compared to PlayStation 5. Willis noted that commercial sales did not meet expectations, which he suspects ties back to its availability on Game Pass. Microsoft previously acknowledged that the business had not grown at the expected pace, resulting in significant job cuts across Xbox and id Software.