90
PS Plus price hike: We'll all pay for a subscription-based future | Opinion
(www.gamesindustry.biz)
this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
90 points (95.9% liked)
Games
16383 readers
1089 users here now
Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
Posts.
- News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
- Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
- No humor/memes etc..
- No affiliate links
- No advertising.
- No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
- No self promotion.
- No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
- No politics.
Comments.
- No personal attacks.
- Obey instance rules.
- No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc..)
- Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.
My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.
Other communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Not me - the moment when buying a game outright is no longer an option is the moment when I stop paying for video games. I already have a large library on Steam (1,700+), GoG (400+), and I'm not planning on buying any Playstation or Xbox products. I've never paid for Xbox game pass, or PS plus, nor do I plan to. They can scheme all day long, hike the prices every week, I already buy games only if they're on a really deep discount or in a bundle. Never paid more than 30 bucks for a game, and I could count on one of my hands how many I paid more than 20 bucks for.
I do, of course, realize that I'm in the minority, but hopefully more people will realize how big of a scam these subscription services are.
That moment will not come. That would mean that every single indie developer had come under the umbrella of such subscription services and not one bigger actor would want to try to differentiate from the competition.
Gamepass isn’t a scam right now in my view. I’m able to get 50 day passes for 7 bucks right now. Once gamepass starts being more expensive than buying the games I want I’ll just go back to doing that.
You may not have that option. The business model here is to burn cash, get consumers used to gamepass, then get games onto gamepass exclusively (likely in exchange for higher payouts from the service). Once we are at that point, which may be years away, prices will rise and there won't be another avenue to play most games.
This is the model right now for shows, and some movies, they are produced for streaming services and are only available on those services.
Most games already don't get physical releases. All that needs to happen to eliminate choice is that gamepass makes publishers a better offer than Steam - then there isn't a digital release either.
They are playing with fire... most games don't require computer level graphics/cpu power. If they aren't careful they will lose their shirt to mobile gaming and console gaming will turn into an unpopular niche thing of the past.
I think that kind of action is what would get regulators on Microsoft’s back which is why they started selling games on third-party platforms like Steam. Could be wrong though.
I don't know, I don't think the PS Plus one is a scam. I subscribed to the mid tier one when it was cheaper for a whole year than to buy a game I wanted to play that was included with it. I've played a good half dozen to dozen games in the year I've had it. I feel like I've definitely got my money's worth out of it.
I was mostly referring to the last part of the article where the author explains the entire long-term plan behind the subscription services - first they offer a large variety of games for a low price, then they squeeze the customers for every single penny after they've cornered the market.
See how Netflix work out their hike etc? I don't think it would continue to work in their favor to meet the profit/sub count projection to make their stocker holder happy.