But this space is ready for disruption, and that could open the chance for something like a subscription service. Maybe Discord Nitro, Game Pass, or Origin Access Premier will do to gaming what Netflix and Spotify have done to movies and music.
I hope they don’t. Netflix is still in the red (-$8B I believe), Spotify doesn’t pay shit for artists.
Nothing beats selling “premium”, aka no BS sale. $30, $40, $60 upfront for a game is better for the developer and the customer than those micro-aggressive subscriptions that are trying to hide behind your bills to squeeze a few bucks for eternity. Stores want that, obviously.
It’s about the relationship with the customer. Subscriptions tend to be abusive: companies change the terms and you’re screwed. That show that you mostly subscribed for, isn’t available anymore. You don’t unsubscribe because of the sink-cost fallacy. Stores want you to feel like that so that you keep paying. For what, it doesn’t matter to them. They’re laughing at you.
That’s not a great relationship.
Now knowing that games take so long to make, you’d better get as much money as fast as possible when it’s out because the studio is probably close to die. If the store delays revenues by offering the new game for next to nothing or free, that’s not going to end well. Very few studios will do fine. Most will die.
Enough game studios have died in the past 20 years. Can we start disrupting in order to sustain things or fucking what.