On Monday of this week, Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions Phillipe Tremblay told GI.Biz that he believed gamers “need” to be more comfortable with the idea of not owning their games.
Tremblay’s words struck the ire of gamers who already don’t love the lack of ownership that exists in games now, even with services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.
It went on to cause panic and fear across the internet about a future where we all pay for subscription services and have no ownership over any of our games, much like how both the music and film/tv industry works with things like Netflix and Spotify.
For games industry analyst at Circana Mat Piscatella though, that’s a fear players don’t currently need to worry about, and called any “fear mongering” around the idea “unnecessary.”
“Subscription growth has flattened, and sub services on console and PC platforms accounts for only 10% of total video game content spending in the US.” said Piscatella on Twitter.
“I get that some people want to protect their preferred model, but the idea that subs will become dominant is unsupported by data.”
He continued, saying “Subs have been more additive than cannibalistic, and offer players, devs and pubs more choice in how to play or how to go to market. Fear mongering on this topic is quite unnecessary.”
So good news for anyone concerned that they’d have to start tracking a new subscription service for every big games publisher.
That’s not going to stop those same publishers from creating subscription services, but as Piscatella points out, they’re simply another option for players and developers.
Tremblay himself said that he doesn’t think having one offer dominate the other is the answer.
“The point is not to force users to go down one route or another, we offer purchase, we offer subscription, and it’s the gamer’s preference that is important here. We are seeing some people who buy choosing to subscribe now, but it all works.”
Source – [Mat Piscatella on Twitter]