![Former Microsoft Exec Gives 'Two Reasons' Why Xbox Closed Bethesda Teams](https://images.purexbox.com/832a2fd03a608/former-microsoft-exec-gives-two-reasons-why-xbox-closed-bethesda-teams.900x.jpg)
It's been a tumultuous time in Xbox land as of late, with news breaking throughout the week about job cuts - including four studio closures within Xbox's Bethesda division. At the time of writing Microsoft hasn't released a statement about all of these reports, but one former executive thinks he knows the "two reasons" behind these developer shutdowns.
Posting on LinkedIn, former Microsoft PR manager Brad Hilderbrand talked at length about what he believes to be the reasons behind this shock change in direction over at Xbox. The long-and-short of his post is that Hilderbrand thinks Xbox Game Pass and Activision Blizzard are those two reasons - with the ActiBlizz acquisition potentially complicating the team's Game Pass strategy.
Here's a chunk of Hilderbrand's lengthy LinkedIn post:
"So games like Hi-Fi Rush, which is incredible mind you, gets a very small bump in revenue from being the hot Game Pass game for a month, then it falls off a cliff when everyone moves onto the next thing. Poor Redfall had it even worse since it launched so rough, it never had a chance. This system was fine for a while when Game Pass was growing like gangbusters, but now it's slowed way down and the amount of revenue it's attributing to games isn't keeping up with the budgets to make them.
So far, the big bets on driving new subscriptions (Redfall, Starfield) haven't spurred near enough growth, and there's not much on the horizon that is likely to restart the momentum. The best bet is COD, but do you really risk the guaranteed sales revenue that franchise brings by putting it on Game Pass on Day 1 and potentially lose massive sales? I don't know what the plans are, but either you put it on Game Pass and lose money, or you don't and the subscribers revolt because they think that's what they signed up for."
The full post is well worth a read to get an interesting perspective on the matter - a perspective that's informed by someone who previously worked as a PR manager for the Redmond firm. We've already reported on news about Xbox potentially debating its future Game Pass strategy, so clearly, there are rumblings going on about what exactly Microsoft will do next with the subscription service.