Subscription based gaming - The Bear and Badger

Sasukekun

So, MS have announced their $99 4GB 360 deal. Where you pay a $99 lump sum, and are tied into a LIVE gold sub for 2 years at $14.99 a month.
Could this be the vision for the start of the next console cycle? Where you walk into Game and sign up for a contract with a new console, and walk out without paying for it, but with a new Â£30 direct debit every month for the next 4 years?

Could this lead the way to Sony and MS going the cloud based gaming route and supplying titles via stream?

Maybe we'll see hardware becoming locked down, with idetical platforms created under different shells bearing Microsoft or Sony branding, but with them only really supplying the service for which you actually play your games through?

Is this a possible bold new era for gaming? Or does it leave you cold to the thought that you could sign up for a 2 or more year contract and end up with the modern day equivalent of the CDi? Or the console equivalenet of the Motorola Razr?

Elmlea

No, I think it's a way to grab some last-minuters at the tail end of this generation rather than anything else.

They know that virtually every day-one purchaser of the new Xbox will be the sort of person who'll pay their $50 a year for XBL anyway, so I'm pretty certain we won't see any cheap deals on that if you agree to stick with Live for a certain amount of time.

Strikes me as a bit cynical that these people will be stuck paying $14.99 a month for a 360 Live subscription during a period that'll undoubtedly see the new Xbox released.

I'm sure we'll get to full-up cloud/DL gaming at some point, but this is just a clever business model now they're not making a massive loss on hardware, and have stocks they want to shift.

Tempy

Isn't PS+ a more accurate example of Subscription Based gaming, seeing as when you cancel PS+ you loose any content associated with it?

This is just Xbox live being sold in a cheeky way that lures them in to a contract instead of letting them snap up "Two Months for Two Pounds" deals and the like.

Facewon

Having just signed up with rdio, and also already being signed up with quickflix, I'm more amenable to the idea of subscriptions in general. I think the issue is what you get for the sub. heck, Live itself is a sub, I just don't think of it as such, for some reason.

It'd actually be interesting to see if someone could make a model work where you pay the sub and then get access to more full games. Like rdio or quickflix for games. I wonder what the tipping point is for the price versus the amount of content.

Could anyone imagine paying Aus$30/15 squid a month, for instance, for all that you already get with Live, and say access to 1-2 XBLA titles and 1-2 full titles as DLC a month, plus all DLC for the titles you have? And could you imagine publishers going for it?

Elmlea

I guess the problem with that is that Lovefilm/Gamefly etc currently effectively offer that. Â If you think about it, they're a subscription service that gives you access to unlimited games until you stop your subscription. Â If they could do it with downloads instead of post, it'd be pretty interesting.

WorKid

Like onLive then?

(Only with more games that aren't shit)

Facewon

Well yeah, but I'd suggest that onlive should let you DL the games. Streaming movies and music is well and good, but we're a long way from streaming inputs fast enough, I would have thought.

Facewon

Elmlea wrote:

I guess the problem with that is that Lovefilm/Gamefly etc currently effectively offer that. Â

true enough, just seems strange that MS and/or Sony aren't being more proactive in trying to get a piece of that pie.

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