Game subscription services are awesome, they make games easily playable for those who can’t afford to buy multiple expensive games. However, if you’re paying less, that means the developers and publishers are also probably receiving less.
If this is the case, then could video game subscription services affect how games are made? Will they make games worse?
How Do Game Subscription Services Work?
Game subscription services are simple concepts for the consumer. You pay a monthly fee, and you get access to a library of games available for you to play. However, it's a little more complicated on the developer and publisher side of things.
The payout schemes are usually a well-kept secret, and nobody on the outside exactly knows how the different platforms pay the game creators and publishers. However, in November 2020, in an interview with Phil Spencer on The Verge, the Xbox CEO says he listens and provides for the developer's needs.
Spencer says that Xbox pays for the entire production cost in some cases, and some developers demand that they get paid a certain amount upfront to allow Xbox to put their game on Game Pass. Others like a usage payout where they get paid depending on the hours their game gets played or the number of users.
A good payout strategy is quite important when it comes to something that changes the industry in a massive way. Without a good payout strategy, becoming an indie developer could be harder than it currently is. Check out how game subscriptions might be bad for indie games if you’re interested in the other potentially negative effects of game subscription services.
How Game Subscriptions Could Affect Developers and Publishers
Game subscription services will force developers and publishers to employ different strategies to adapt to the change in the industry. Here are two of the most important ones that affect the end user.
Lower Production Budgets
Whether you’re an indie developer or a large publisher, production budgets are everything. At the end of the day, people need to make money to keep doing what they’re doing. And games cost a lot of money to make, like Red Dead Redemption 2, for example. According to VentureBeat, it cost about $540 million to make, and it would be very close to impossible for Rockstar to get a return on its investment quickly with subscriptions.
In January 2022, Xbox Game Pass had 25 million players (Statista), and even if everyone played Red Dead Redemption 2 for the whole month, it's likely that it would barely make half of the cost to make the game. If subscription services became the mainstream way for people to play games, the budget for Red Dead Redemption 2 would have to be much lower for Rockstar to make a profit in a timely manner.
A lower budget could possibly mean a shorter game, a less expansive and detailed world, simpler characters, or a buggy release. It’s even possible that games like Red Dead Redemption 2 wouldn’t even have a chance to be made anymore.
Microtransactions Could Be in Even More Games
Microtransactions are a controversial topic, and it could become even more controversial if that’s what most games will opt for to make money and keep the developers afloat.
This isn’t just adding DLCs to further the game’s story, but probably something far more sinister, like in mobile games. Mobile games have a history of shoving microtransactions down players’ throats because mobile games have to be free or else nobody plays them.
This could potentially mean a pay-to-win system or intentionally making the story too short and putting the true ending behind a paywall. One of the worst things that mobile games do is implement addictive tactics to get players to spend money against their better judgment.
Check out how mobile games are unhealthy to learn more about the dark side of the mobile gaming industry because subscriptions might take non-mobile gaming down this road.
Won’t Game Subscriptions Bring More Players to More Games?
Game subscriptions make more games more accessible to more players. Instead of buying individual games at a high cost, multiple games can now be played with a small monthly fee. This empowers gaming and could bring balance to the potentially negative effects of game subscriptions.
Indie Games Get More Exposure
With more players playing more games, it’s much easier to discover niche indie games. There are always players in every genre and gamers are always looking to try something new. If the new game doesn’t involve extra financial commitment, then it’s easy as downloading any game that piques your interest.
While making money from sales won’t be a thing anymore, developers won’t need to worry about needing to convince anyone to buy a game. The new challenge will be making the game interesting enough and marketing it in a way that makes people want to play your game.
Players Could Try Games They Usually Won't Buy
There are plenty of genres of games, but most gamers stick to only a few genres and won’t really venture out beyond what they think they’ll enjoy. Games are expensive, and spending money on a game you don’t have the confidence you’ll enjoy is a potential waste of money.
Subscriptions make that easier on the gamer as, again, it takes no further financial commitment to play a new game. Developers and publishers suddenly have a much wider market as it’s easier to let people try out different genres if they’re free.
Games Won’t Get Worse, but They Might Get Smaller
Games can be made with any budget, big or small. However, the features of the game could be limited by budget. We can still have good games, but we might see a decline in large-scale, costly games. If the market does expand by a considerable amount because of the accessibility of subscription services, then there might be enough money in the market for big and small games after all.
GTA V doesn’t even need to be paid anymore, GTA+ subscription exists and Rockstar has made GTA V free to keep multiple times in the past. GTA V doesn’t rely on game sales anymore, and it has relied on in-game purchases for the past nine or so years.
Games similar to GTA V can survive in the subscription era, but with how large and expensive it could be, it’ll take a while to make a profit, if at all. We’ll see fewer of these games released because of the risk involved. However, it only means that when one does come out, they have confidence in what they’re releasing to be good.
Game Subscriptions Will Force Developers to Be More Creative
In order to survive the subscription era, you need to stand out and get players on board. The competition will be fierce because you can play any game you want at no additional cost.
This means developers will do their best to make the best games they can to make it worth your precious playtime. We just hope it doesn’t result in addictive tactics and unethical practices for them to make their money.
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2023-04-04 16:16:00Z
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