Over the last couple years, we’ve witnessed a huge increase in the number and in the quality of subscription based services in gaming. Xbox Game Pass, among the others, has proved to be a very good offering and alternative to the usual $70 retail business to many, both publishers or developers and gamers.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve witnessed a massive increase in the number of subscription-based services in gaming. Xbox Game Pass, among others, have proven to be a perfect offering and an alternative to the usual $70 retail business to many, for both publishers or developers and players.
However, there’s someone who doesn’t think that this type of services is a good fit for gaming. They are Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive’s CEO, the publisher behind Rockstar Games and Visual Concepts, and titles like GTA, Red Dead, NBA 2K, BioShock, and more.
“I think the average American household wants to subscribe to two to three entertainment properties at a time, of all sorts. There will be no winner takes all, and a bunch of losers, in linear programming as well as interactive,” Zelnick told VentureBeat. “Interactive programming isn’t particularly well-suited to a subscription, because you typically only play a couple of titles at a time, and you play them for a long time. I’m not sure what subscriptions bring. But we’ll see because obviously, some people are going to launch them, and Game Pass is already out there.”
It’s good to note that subscription-based services get a lot of value when they allow you to grab games at day one which you would regularly pay $70 at retail or digital for just one dollar or $9,99 when you don’t get a good offer out there. So, it’s a fact that this type of service could help you play games even if you don’t play all of those in the subscription right away.
So, while Ubisoft just announced uPlay+, Electronic Arts have had EA and Origin Access for a while now, and even Square Enix and SEGA are looking into the matter. Take-Two are looking to stay out of it, for the time being.
