Ryan, speaking in pre-recorded video testimony, also claimed other publishers "unanimously do not like Game Pass" for that reason. When pressed by Microsoft's lawyer, he added: "I talk to publishers all the time, and this is a very commonly-held view over many years by the publishers."
Talking to Eurogamer yesterday, Miles Jacobson, studio head of Sports Interactive, the Sega-owned developer of the ever-popular Football Manager series, disagreed with that quite directly.
"Every studio is going to have different opinions on this," Jacobson explained, "and different studios will have different data, because different games work well in different situations. For us, it's nothing but positive on all three platforms.
"We run quite a tight ship," he continued, "and I like our studio to be profitable - Sega took a big gamble on us all those years ago, and their shareholders - however weird it might sound - should be rewarded for that. So we don't tend to do deals that are bad for any parts of the business."
"The simple fact is Game Pass and Apple Arcade have brought new people to the franchise that never played it before," Jacobson told Eurogamer. "I'm confident enough in our games to believe we will now have those consumers for a long time, whatever platforms we're on. Fiscally, it makes sense. Creatively, it makes sense.
As Jacobson explained, subscriptions services like Game Pass have, if anything, been closer to a unanimously positive experience for the studio. "Every studio has to make decisions themselves, but I don't recognise some of the quotes that I see from other studios, and depositions. I don't recognise that in our business. It's all very sunny for us," he concluded.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 29 June 2023
