Major Western publication Dualshockers released articlein which the author joined To Sven Vinke and criticized the company Ubisoft for their recent statement that “subscription services are the future and gamers should start getting out of the habit of owning games.”
The author of the article writes that Philippe Tremblay Ubisoft was completely incompetent in telling most gamers that they had to change their game ownership habits for the big companies to prosper.
“Tremblay’s statement seems to completely ignore one of the things the gaming community values most. He doesn’t understand the value of property at all. If someone buys a game like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, they will have access to over a hundred Hours of content If you’re not an avid gamer, this amount of content could last you for several months, making the idea of owning the game much more attractive than paying a monthly subscription.
Although Tremblay mentions that you can sign up for a one-time playthrough of the game instead of an ongoing subscription, this creates an additional barrier to replaying the games. People (like me) who like to replay their games don’t have to do anything to download an old favorite game. It costs me nothing to fire up my copy of Red Dead Redemption 2 any day. In a world dominated by streaming and subscriptions, I’ll need to consider which service has my old favorite game and how much it will cost me to play it again. This is not a very attractive idea.
Tremblay also doesn’t recognize the role of developers in this process. Larian Studios, the makers of the incredible Baldur’s Gate 3, recently announced that they would not be putting their game on Game Pass, believing that their game was well worth its price. Not only do I agree with this, but I also think it would be detrimental for developers to feel like they only have to make a deal with a subscription service to be successful, something less wealthy studios than Larian often do. Consumers should always be able to put their money directly into the pockets of the developers they want to support, and I don’t see that changing in the near future.”
We can only hope that publishers will listen to criticism from players and journalists regarding subscription services, streaming and online DRM, leaving players the opportunity to enjoy their favorite game at any time and many years later.
