“That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.”
Ubisoft’s Philippe Tremblay managed to kick the hornet’s nest earlier this week. How, you might ask? Well, he essentially claimed that owning the games you paid for is not the future of the gaming market.
More specifically, he asserts that subscription services like Ubisoft+ and Game Pass are the future in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. His claim being that gamers will become more comfortable with not owning games over time.
One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. 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. 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.
Streaming is also a thing that works really well with subscription. So you pay when you need it, as opposed to paying all the time.
Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft director of subscriptions
There are many issues with M. Tremblay’s assertions. However, I think I’ll start with the most prevalent, easily observable one. Because we have spent the past two years watching film/television streaming subscription services taking some of the most massive fucking L’s possibly imaginable. Not only do all of them alter content in a way that compromises the original artistic integrity of the work, they’ll happily remove content as they see fit. And in some cases, you’re unlikely to ever see it again; Warner Bros. Discovery spent the past couple of years writing off movies and shows they owned for tax cuts (see: Megas XLR; I dig giant robots).
Second, one of the nice things about media you own locally (physically and, as much as I don’t like the model, digitally) is that you don’t need a goddamn internet connection to play or watch it. Personally, I feel a bit more comfortable having my favorites ready to go at any time. Because sometimes, you can’t watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Paramount+.
As for Ubisoft+, it’s considerably more expensive, and offers much less, than Game Pass, even accounting for changes since launch versus now. So you have to look deep inside yourself and ask “How many Ubisoft games do I really want to play?”
Oh, and game streaming is one of those things that basically has zero margin and is a nice way to hemorrhage venture capital. I don’t know why he went on about you getting to keep your save, when not being able to play that game anymore means said save is worthless.
Needless to say, there was a sizeable number of people online that immediately dunked on him. And some of those were actually developers. Larian’s (Baldur’s Gate 3) director of publishing Michael Douse being one of them.
For what it’s worth, M. Tremblay did go on to say the following:
The point is not to force users to go down one route or another,” he explains. “We offer purchase, we offer subscription, and it’s the gamer’s preference that is important here. We are seeing some people who buy choosing to subscribe now, but it all works.
Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft director of subscriptions
I don’t know about you, but I can mostly live without the majority of Ubisoft’s upcoming oeuvre. If that’s the future they want though, well, I wasn’t really buying that many of their games to begin with. Someone is, though; there’s no other way to account for all the Assassin’s Creed sequels they make otherwise. And it’s worth remembering that there’s only so many subscriptions a person is going to be willing to have before they start making choices.
Source: PC Gamer
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