In a recent episode of the MinnMax podcast, Mike Brown, creative director of Forza Horizon 5 and co-founder of Maverick Games since leaving Playground Games to work on Clutch at Maverick Games, commented on Xbox's recent sweeping changes and the state of Xbox Game Pass. He has a lot of praise for the former Xbox leadership, both Sarah Bond and Phil Spencer, and comments that the current state of Xbox and the recent layoffs are both "sad."

Brown goes on to say about Game Pass that "they've obviously invested a fortune in the concept of Game Pass, as a service," which has led to "loads of acquisitions" in order to get games in Game Pass, but he adds that "not enough people have subscribed to it at prices that they needed to pay in order to make that business viable." He explains that the concept of Game Pass was "well-meaning," "player-focussed," and a "good concept."