10 Biggest Dangers To Gaming Right Now (From A Dev's Perspective)
3. The Subs Dominate (Gaming Subscriptions Mimic TV Streaming Models)
The other night, I wanted to watch “Nurse Jackie,” a favourite of mine, featuring The Sopranos’ Edie Falco. To my dismay (though, not surprise), it wasn’t on Netflix, nor was it available on Amazon Prime. A few of the series were available through the Xbox store, but not all, and most were on Paramount+, an application you need to subscribe to as an Amazon Prime bolt-on if watching on console.
After my Angry Radius™ subsided (if you’re ever caught in it, beware - I may tut at you for no reason, then sigh), I sat and thought, “this really is how it’s going to be from now on, isn’t it?” - every piece of content chopped down by degrees until we’re fighting over specks of dust. Today it’s Disney+, tomorrow it’ll be Star Wars Pass, Disney Classics Pass, Disney Documentary Pass and Pixar Pass all for $5 apiece.
And gaming will almost certainly go down the same route - first, establishing subscriptions as the new primary delivery method, then hacking them to bits piecemeal so every publisher has one or two subscriptions each.
Just imagine finding out your Ubisoft Max subscription doesn’t have Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag on it, because that’s only in the A-Pass-in’s Creed (sorry), so you cough up the extra five bucks, thinking "ah, might as well download Assassin’s Creed 2, seeing as I’m paying for it,” only to discover that’s only on the Ubisoft Legends: Ezio Auditore Pass.
History loves to repeat itself, and all we can do is sub-mit.