A new report looking into how games are consumed in French-speaking African countries Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon shows a clear preference for free-to-play titles, in an ecosystem dominated by Android.
16.01.2024 - 14:35 / rockpapershotgun.com / Philippe Tremblay / With Game / Ubisoft
Ubisoft's director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay has said that for all the growth of videogame subscription services in the past few years, players are still accustomed to "having and owning their games". Accordingly, he feels his task is to help you grow "comfortable" with the idea that the game you're playing might be taken offline as part of the release schedule, with Tremblay pointing out that you can still resume your save file when the game is next available.
"I don't have a crystal ball, but when you look at the different subscription services that are out there, we've had a rapid expansion over the last couple of years, but it's still relatively small compared to the other models," Tremblay told GamesIndustry.biz during an interview about the rebranding of Ubisoft's own subs offering as Ubisoft+ Premium. "We're seeing expansion on console as the likes of PlayStation and Xbox bring new people in. On PC, from a Ubisoft standpoint, it's already been great, but we are looking to reach out more on PC, so we see opportunity there.
"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games," he went on. "That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games].
"As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect... you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.
"I still have two boxes of DVDs," Tremblay continued. "I definitely understand the gamers perspective with that. But as people embrace that model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you'll be able to access them when you feel like. That's reassuring."
Call me a grouch, but I'm not sure it is? Tremblay's argument doesn't address the fact that there is no guarantee a de-listed game will eventually return to a subscription service, and doesn't account for the fact that subscription services themselves may fail, exacerbating the problem of videogame preservation in a digital age.
It also doesn't dig into wider concerns about the impact of subscription models on game developers, especially smaller independents, who may feel they have no option but to publish their games via a subscription service if they want to have an audience, however unappetising the contract. Last year, Finji's CEO told GI that "if we turn a buying population into a subscription population, that means we have to rely on subscription
A new report looking into how games are consumed in French-speaking African countries Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon shows a clear preference for free-to-play titles, in an ecosystem dominated by Android.
Dragon's Dogma 2's director thinks less fast travel in a game can be a good thing, and if traveling by foot is boring, that's the game's fault.
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The CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, has said that the developer has no intention to bring its titles to subscription services.
Payday 3 launched back in September last year to very little fanfare, with fans angry over matchmaking issues and a lack of features seen in previous Payday games. It's only gotten worse over the months since launch, with the game's recent reviews dropping to Mostly negative on Steam, and even more fans angry at the release of paid DLC when the base game is still barebones.
Earlier this week, Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions, made a comment in an interview stating how video game fans would need to get comfortable with not owning their games. Today, Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios’ CEO responded, calmly explaining his opinion that “direct from developer” is best.
The Baldur's Gate 3 creative director, Swen Vincke, stated that acquiring good video game content might be more challenging if subscriptions become the dominant model in the industry. The Baldur's Gate 3 creative director's comments were in response to recent statements from a Ubisoft executive who suggested that gamers may need to adjust to not owning their games as video game subscriptions gain popularity.
Larian CEO Swen Vincke has been reading Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay's thoughts from yesterday about how players need to "get comfortable" with renting their games as a package, rather than "having and owning" an individual copy. His broad takeaway is: that ain't it, chief. In a social media thread today, Vincke wrote that "it's going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not". He feels that "direct from developer to players is the way". As such you shouldn't expect Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2 or any other Larian RPGs to join the Game Pass bandwagon anytime soon.
Over the last decade or so, the entertainment industry has seen many rises and falls across all brands. These changes have affected music, TV, movies, and even video games. Things “for sure never going to fail” started to fail. Then, things that “could never work” have done well and made many wonder if things could go further down that path. One such path is that of the “game subscription service,” which was punctuated by the Xbox Game Pass, which has done wonders for Microsoft. However, Larian Studios isn’t on board with this notion, nor with notions of such services made by fellow game developers.
The director of Baldur's Gate 3 has discussed the possibility of their games heading to subscription services, sharing: "Direct from developer to players is the way."
Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke has said the company won’t be putting any of its games on subscription services.