Adding a bit more to the discussion on whether game subscription can be “the future”, it looks like despite the heavy push made in the past decade, subscriptions only make up 10% of total video game spending in the US.
Link: https://nitter.net/MatPiscatella/status/1747660051269988522
He means that the subscribers don’t stop buying games elsewhere. They do both instead of migrating from one model to the other.
Ok, that’s exactly what I thought it meant. So why isn’t that good for the industry? Doesn’t that mean that they’re double-dipping?
It is. But the industry would rather have all of us subscribing because that’s a constant profit and they love constant profit. They’d rather have 100% subscribing and 0% buying than 10% subscribing and 100% buying.
I think I’m getting it now. He was saying “don’t worry” to consumers, not video game companies.
I think he’s saying that neither extreme is right. Subscriptions aren’t going to take over the entire market but they will likely continue to play a role going forward.
So my current understanding of this is that he’s telling us, as consumers, not to worry because subscriptions are not taking over the industry like the industry wants it to. It’s working for them, but it’s not taking over.