Games as a Service (Off-Topic)

by Earendil, Wednesday, September 24, 2014, 12:09 (3503 days ago) @ Fuertisimo

Sorry for the tangential post, but its all connected by the profit motive that dominates the industry. Just remember, they don't care about us beyond our purchasing power.

Right, don't forget that they care about our purchasing power. Any sort of subscription service strikes me as a bet on the part of the company that
A: Their content is worth paying for over time
B: Their content is better than others

If either one of those is not true, than we stop paying. Period. In a subscription model you will pay more for your favorite game, but you will pay significantly less for games you personally have no interest in after the first few hours.

Take this fake example:
Pay $60 up front, or
Pay $15 a month.

Let's say I buy 4 games, and only one of them interests me for 12 months, and the others are only worth a month or two.

With the up front model, I'll pay $240 dollars, and my money is given equally to games I like and games I don't like.

In the subscription model, we'd have:
12 x $15 = $180
1 x $15 = $15
1 x $15 = $15
1 x $15 = $15
= $225

Not only do I spend less, but my money goes to developers that I think truly deserve it. And after the company breaks even, they will have the cash flow to continue to produce content if they choose to. If they DON'T choose to, I'll stop paying my subscription fee, if they DO choose to, I still have the choice to say whether it's worth it or not.

You can of course twist my numbers however you want and make subscription worse. But the general idea is that gamers only have a set budget for a year. They aren't going to get MORE money out of the Customer, so much as get you to spend more of your budget on them than on that other gaming company.