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Game Subscriptions and why they're not for me

The 'Netflix for videogames' is still quite a bit away.

Video Game Subscriptions. Every platform has them these days. Xbox has Game Pass, Sony has PlayStation Plus, and even Nintendo, often behind the curve, has one. Publishers like EA and Ubisoft offer their titles for a periodic fee through EA Play and Ubisoft+. And we're not even done yet! Non-gaming entities have them too: Apple has Apple Arcade, and Amazon has Prime Gaming.

With that introduction, you might think I'm going to dive into all of them and tell you exactly what each is about and which ones are the best deal. I’m not. I’ve only got one subscription service, and only out of necessity. If not for the need to "Catch Them All," I wouldn’t have bothered with Nintendo Switch Online. That's what I want to discuss today—gaming subscriptions and why they’re not for me, with a little history to kick things off.

So, without further ado, let’s talk about my stance on this current subscription boom and my thoughts on it all.

The Rise of Gaming Subscriptions

Let’s start with a brief history lesson. We all know Netflix. Founded in 1997 as a DVD mailing service, it delivered DVDs to your door instead of you having to go to a Blockbuster to rent and return them. In 2007, Netflix realized its vision of offering video-on-demand through its brand-new service "Watch Now", an add-on to its then-standard renting business.

By the early 2010s, Netflix began its rise to become the juggernaut it is today. They achieved this by taking things slow and steady when building out their streaming technology, slowly rolling it out and improving it to prevent critical errors and downtime. By striking deals with television studios for shows such as Breaking Bad and propelling them into the stratosphere in terms of popularity. And by creating its own must-watch shows like House of Cards.

Netflix proved that streaming content in a subscription-based model was not only viable but could make you millions. This inspired many others to launch their own subscription services, both within and beyond the traditional entertainment industry.

On that other side of the aisle, video game companies have been experimenting with gaming subscription services since the 80s. Atari and Mattel had their own offerings with GameLine, which allowed subscribers to rent games through a modem, and PlayCable, where you could download games through television cables.

After the video game crash of '83, new kids on the block, Nintendo and Sega, dipped their toes in the water as well. Nintendo had the Japan-only Stellaview, which transmitted games through satellite signals. Sega's offering was the Sega Channel, which rotated out games monthly via a television cable.

As you all know, none of these attempts lasted long. The technology just wasn't advanced enough to make these services work the way you wanted them to.

That brings us to GamePass. The original intent was for it to be a digital renting service. Inspired by Netflix's aforementioned success, however, then-new head of Xbox Phil Spencer pushed hard for it to become a subscription service. Any reason his staff and others raised against the idea—such as publishers not participating or it eating into profits—he wouldn’t hear. He wouldn’t take ´no´ for an answer, and with success. GamePass, as we know it today, launched in 2017 and grew to over 10 million users in about three years.

In response, Sony and Nintendo launched their own subscription services: PlayStation Plus (reworked) and Nintendo Switch Online. Apple launched Apple Arcade, Amazon revamped its gaming offerings to Prime Gaming, and EA kept trudging along with EA Play, thankful for the Microsoft checks for its GamePass integration.

The Current State

And that's more or less where we are now. Not much has changed in the last few years, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. More than enough people see value in this subscription approach that they keep it, to the point that many buy an Xbox Series S solely as a GamePass machine. The service brings in billions in revenue each year and, doubters be damned, is profitable. However, it and its many competitors have been unable to really grow.

Currently, Game Pass—which, to remind you, is considered the frontrunner here—has 34 million subscribers as of the last report. A great number, yes, but far from Xbox's goals. Microsoft still aims to have 100 million users by 2030. From the numbers Xbox has shared, we know their goal for fiscal year 2022 was a 73% growth. What they managed was 28%. After that, GamePass growth was dropped as a target for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's executive compensation. Why? Well, it was the second year in a row he failed to meet that target.

Growth is a problem, and not just for GamePass. PlayStation Plus, which has around 47 million users thanks to the larger install base, stopped reporting its numbers in October 2023, and you don't do that when you can boast (significant) growth. Makes sense, since the service barely grew its numbers since mid-2020. Nintendo Switch Online? Their last reported number was 38 million in 2023, up 2 million compared to 2022, whereas the growth from 2021 to 2022 was 4 million, and from 2020 to 2021, it was 6 million. The growth was clearly slowing.

The only real way to grow, revenue-wise, is to make more from the audience you already have. Price hikes, new and more expensive tiers, and price hikes disguised as new tiers—tricks all three have pulled. Xbox did so only a day after I put the above text on paper with their new GamePass tiers. What Microsoft has also been doing is going on a buying spree—from Bethesda to Activision Blizzard for more exclusive content, all of which will hit GamePass day 1. Active users have, by their own account, become more important than console owners, after all.

Just someting to break up this article, visual wise. 

My take on it all

With all of that said, we get to the core of this article. What do I think of it all? To start: gaming subscriptions aren't for me. I feel that they're suited for someone looking for variety and quantity. People who don't mind paying a little extra for convenience and who don't often play a game all the way through. Who may or may not mostly play multiplayer affairs. This view solidified after reading Christopher Dring's article on who exactly subscribes to gaming subscriptions. Most people who play a lot of games and, surprisingly, for whom saving money isn't as important as convenience. Good for them.

Me? I don't fall into that category. Sure, I spend around 6-7 hours a week on video games, sometimes more, but I’m not a multiplayer guy nor someone who gets a kick out of having hundreds of titles in my digital 'library'. I’m not the type of person who jumps from one game to another. I commit to titles, at least making it to the credits regardless of quality or not.

I also prefer to own my games physically and am willing to pay a bit extra for physical copies should that be necessary. If that is necessary, since with some patience and smart shopping, I can often find titles much cheaper than the SRP. I didn’t do the math, but I don’t think there’s much difference between me playing these games through something like GamePass or buying them outright. If they’re not brand new releases, that is, which is where that waiting comes in.

Lastly, my autistic head just can't justify playing a 'rented' or 'free with your online' game compared to one I spent good money on. Not until those are done with, and with the size of my backlog... yeah, that's never happening!

The Mistake of Day One Releases

Speaking of which, I do want to take a paragraph or seven to talk about Microsoft’s day-one releases on GamePass and why I think they shot themselves in the foot with this move. In my eyes, in an attempt to boost short-term growth, they created a long-term problem. Subscription services work best when they focus on older content.

For publishers, it’s simply one more SKU for their software after their traditional life cycle has ended. Has dripped down from normal retail sale and discounts. It's a good way for gamers to play older titles they missed out on or are simply not playable any other way on modern consoles. Think of situations where a new title in a series gets announced and then the entire back catalogue is there to play on GamePass for new and old fans alike.

With day-one releases, you go one step further than exclusives to convince people to choose your subscription service instead of the competition’s. You give them brand-new games through the subscription service free of extra charge. That is undeniably a good deal for the subscriber. Numbers with Game Pass remain hard to come by, but I'm pretty certain it caused many people to sign up.

It was good for those numbers but bad for sustainability. Many, myself included, felt that this practice would undermine them. If you have your big game in one ecosystem, Xbox and PC, and offer gamers a way to get these games without spending more money than people already are, how are you going to recoup the costs? How many new subscribers would you need to gain to make up for just one lost purchase? 

It only seemed logical, inevitable really, that they would walk their 'every first party comes to GamePass day one' policy back. It would be tough with how people have come to find it normal and such, but unless you release your games on a big ecosystem without GamePass (cough, PS5, cough), then I don't think you'll ever see enough sales to make a profit. With GamePass Standard, the first step has been taken by introducing a tier with no day-one releases.

Curious to see where it ends. First-day releases only on the most expensive tier, one more expensive than the current Ultimate, perhaps?

............

And that’s all I have to say, for now. Gaming subscription services is a topic I could talk about for a lot longer. When I was writing this, Microsoft announced that price hike and a new tier system! I worked the relevant bits into this as well as I could, but that opened up quite the can of worms in my head. But I digress. I got what I wanted to talk about most right now out of the way. They're not my thing: I prefer physical and quality over quantity. I've always doubted the GamePass model, day-one releases especially. But, to end things on a more positive note, there is a place for them in the industry.

They're perhaps the best way right now for older and legacy content to become available and keep them from disappearing just a while longer. Plus, in a world where a majority of playtime is spent on a few live service titles, giving people access to variety and convincing them to try more kinds of games is a boon. Not a boon that wins me over, but a boon nonetheless.

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