Analyst Says Online Gaming Moving To Subscriptions; Activision Set To Garnish Your Wages
I think EA will migrate to an online subscription model, so instead of paying $10 for an online pass, I think EA will charge $5 or $10 a month which will give the player the ability to play any of the companies sports games online.
- Michael Patcher
I think EA will migrate to an online subscription model, so instead of paying $10 for an online pass, I think EA will charge $5 or $10 a month which will give the player the ability to play any of the companies sports games online.
- Michael Patcher
Gaming industry analyst Michael Pachter predicts that online multiplayer will become subscription based as game publishers seek new and painful ways to shake money out of the pockets of consumers. Patcher, an analyst from Wedbush Morgan, says companies such as EA will begin to charge players a monthly fee to play online — something all-too-familiar to players of MMOs, but foreign to the majority of online players.
Interestingly, the infamous Patcher suggests that even if companies move to subscription models, some games (such as EA Sports titles) won’t take a huge hit, claiming that “they will be fine if 1-2 million do that [pay for subscription] and they will be fine if other 10-20 million people who play EA Sports games keep buying new games.”
Rumors suggest that Activision is already planning to charge for online Call of Duty play, which would amount to aggressive implementation of a subscription based model for online shooters. While community managers from Infinity Ward suggested that there were no plans to put CoD on a subscription model, there’s no telling what the higher-ups are thinking at Activision and elsewhere.
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I personally WILL NOT pay extra money for something that should be free in the first place. The only way I see them getting away with this is if they pledge their support by continuously supplying updates and new content on a weekly basis. Unfortunately I don’t think this will happen as most companies try to do as little work as possible to maximize profit. Another thing, what about all the people that pay for Xbox Live? I don’t think they will be willing to shell out oven more cash than what they already are.
Don’t these companies make enough money as it is already? I swear, this industry is starting to present itself as the greediest on the market.
Microsoft already has people on the hook for paying for online services, and these game companies (rationally) are now trying to enter that market — Why let MS collect the online entrance fee for their game?
Rational behavior or not, you’re right — this certainly will hit the consumer hard. We’re already paying for Xbox live (some of us), and for inflated AAA titles ($60 games).
The video game industry in general is fairly young in relation to other established industries, so different payment models will come into play in the next decade. It’s hard to say right now where things will land — we will probably see a mix of upfront payment and recurring payments. If services like OnLive become popular, then we might see some models where there are only recurring payments.
TL;DR: Things are certainly getting more expensive all the time.