Xbox's Chris Charla: The "enthusiasm for game developers for Game Pass has never gone down"

It's been a strange year for Xbox and Game Pass, because recently a slate of major price hikes were announced that changed the subscription service from being the undisputable best deal in gaming to instead being more of an enthusiast service. You can still get a version of Game Pass for an affordable price, but those looking for day one launches and the full range of newly included projects, you'll have to fork out a serious amount of money every single month.

So does this big shake-up - which affected how the service is perceived by the community - have any impact on developers and how they look at Game Pass? We asked GM of Portfolio and Programmes at Xbox, Chris Charla, during an interview at DevGAMM recently.

"Well, I think the enthusiasm for game developers for Game Pass has never gone down, right? And, you know, when we have developers who are coming back to us and doing a second game, a third game, a seventh game, you know, on Game Pass, you know, that extrinsically tells us that we're doing something right there. And, of course, when we see players enjoying and loving all the amazing titles there are on Game Pass, we feel really good."

We also inquired with Charla about how the array of different projects on Game Pass affect how developers of different scales and sizes look at the service. We inquired about how the arrival of Keeper, for example, might affect any smaller indie developers looking to join the platform through the ID@Xbox indie-geared initiative.

"I think with video games, the more the merrier, right? And the fact that there's a great game on Xbox that's from a great studio with Double Fine, that doesn't affect anything for anybody, right? Maybe it makes people look at the Xbox, turn the Xbox on more and bring more games."

Lastly, we asked about the upcoming ID@Xbox line-up and what to expect on this front. Charla was, naturally, hesitant to spill any beans, but he did tease us with the following: "I feel really good about the lineup that is coming through the ID@Xbox programme in the next six to nine months."

Catch the full, and locally subtitled interview with Charla below.