In an interview with The Expansion Pass podcast, Layden noted that Microsoft, thanks to its own infrastructure, is able to make a profit, while it is significantly more difficult for third-party studios to achieve real earnings. He compared the situation to a casino:
Talking about the revenue of the Redmond giant is like boasting about the revenue of a casino, where ultimately only the owner of the establishment wins.
Layden also recalled his previous, somewhat exaggerated estimate of the need to gather 500 million subscribers for the model to become fully self-sufficient. In his opinion, the traditional sale of a game for $70 allows for quick recouping of development costs and significant profit from each subsequent copy, while fixed subscription payments limit the financial potential of ambitious projects.