I like to have a phisical copy of the games for a reason that I don't know what it is. Most of times I play the games, put on the shelf and never touch it anymore. But I like this way.

However, we are talking about business. And the subscription model is far better for the big companies. It keeps under their control the property of the games. No more used games, no piracy, constant flow of money. And, as consumers, we don't have how to fight back against Google, Microsoft or Amazon.

I wouldn't support subscription in favour of owning games, but I'm always going to put my value gained above all, as would any consumer. Sometimes you just can't deny good value, and that's Gamepass. I just renewed my Xbox live for 2 years and for an extra dollar I got a Gamepass subscription with it. I'll get Gears 5 4 days before launch, Halo infinite when it comes out, and there are TONS of big games on there like Metro Exodus, Monster Hunter, Wolfenstein, Shadow of theTomb Raider, like the value is undeniable.

And for those that will say that I'm supporting a service that can hurt us as gamers in the future, I mean really don't care right now. I absolutely don't want that to be our future but it's practically free for me at the moment, I know it won't last long and when that wave comes I'll opt out no problem.

No idiot is going to play competitive multiplayer gaming with input lag

Tbh I don't mind these game pass subscription services. You get a choice.

A) buy game out right (physical or digital)
B) rent game for X amount a month

For me, when a game is completed and I've had my fair share of playing it. I don't care if I still own it in my library.

If the library of rented games is big enough for the cost. I may consider one.

I feel the need to own a game argument invalid for this sort of debate. You don't have to sub to these services and you can still buy the games out right. So where's the debate?

I don’t like calling people out on N4G, but I will make an exception for Locomorales because he is always about some agenda. It is quite embarrassing. Anyways, people can accept many of these dumb gaming services, but I will find other options if many people want to accept this garbage. I refuse to be at the mercy of any company in gaming that wants to do anything to steal more money from our wallets. People better make sure they have a solid net connection that supports these services or they will be screwed.

I'm really like Game Pass; it's opening the door to so many games I would otherwise never try for a decent price, and I'm liking a lot of them.

i might just learn to play an instrument. at least ill own it.

I only need 1 permanent Subscription and one ocasional Subscription, only buy then on promos, and all is well.

I will always support buying traditional physical copies of videogames to play on my Pro. I have no use for any subscription services. PS Now streams most games in 720p including most games are PS3 games that I've already played on the PS3 in 720p so there's really no use for me to have it.

You can only play so many games at a time. No need to have all types of subscriptions going at the same time. That's just pointless and a waste of money. But how they hope most will do as we are kinda lazy. Be smart and you'll save money by subscribing and playing games.

The only sub I will buy is PS+ and that’s it and I’m currently signed up until 2026

I'm pretty sure the title of this article is just hyperbole... it's how journalists distort the truth .
I doubt very much that there are millions more gamers who rather have subs then gamers who want to own games.

not true. outside of basic psn+ subsciptions arent going to become huge. The simple reason is you cant have new 3rd party games on a subscription model. The developer/publisher doesnt get enough compared to £50 for a new release, hence why stadia doesnt have it. Only after a game has ben out for quite a while does it possibly make financia sense to have it on a subscription.

I like the subscriptions, Origin Access is $2.50/month. That's not much. I played Rime, Titanfall 2, Mad Max, BF1, BFV... there are a lot of games I was considering buying, then I got to try them out and learned that I don't like them and stopped thinking about them.

And that’s when I go retro gaming only

I already have a huge backlog of games across PS3 and PS4. I don't need to add to that.

If it becomes the norm I'll just quit gaming all together, no point in continuing if you get to a point you don't even own your games anymore.

I'm okay with it, at least as an option. There have been about a dozen games that I have purchased due to Game Pass. I would have never have tried them otherwise. Once I find games I really enjoy on the service, I go and purchase them to own.
I see nothing wrong with this. As long as purchasing they game remains an option.

Netflix, Amazon, HBO Now, Hulu, Disney, I'll throw in SyFy for Krypton and the History channel, you pay for this ? LMAO Torrent my friends torrent. No point when the shows/movies are up the same day or in a few hours after they aired. Ex: Jessica Jones Season 3 got it in 1080p, within a few hours, soon in 4K when they upload smaller x265 files. :D So to me I don't give a shit what network the shows go on, in the end I will have them ^_^. You all can waste your $$ on all this sub crap. If they can get all these TV shows/Movies up on the torrent sites I'm sure they will do the same if games go this way, they will find a way.

Take advantage of everything out there, if it works for use buy it if it doesn't don't. End of story, I don't see options going away any time soon, these corporations only follow our wallet, we have the power they don't.

Thank God for PC gaming and offline console games!

But hey, keep on giving more power to these companies by subscribing to crap like Xbox Live Gold and PS+

It was only a matter of time they got even more greedy and started cashing in on streaming services and the like.

Totally understand the inevitable downvotes but I kind of like them.
I play a lot more Indie games then I ever would if I didn't have Gamepass.
Plus sometimes I get to play AAA games like shadow of TR, that reviewed weak and meant me not risking full price on it. Second chance chance games if you like.

I guarantee these companies have laid out 10 year plans with this stuff ending in micro transactions. Everyone bitched at beginning of this generation that $60 for a games not enough. I bet the plans to get the games into as many hands as possible with subscriptions and when people become used to it work in micro transactions. $60 for a games a bargain, as long as Sony keeps doing it the way they are that’s where my money’s going

some ppl just hate other ppl having choices. hyperbole extreme in this comment section.

And we’re all gonna drown with it.

How ironic, the article page has a popup asking you to subscribe.

The problem i see with subscription gaming is that its a risk games loses quality. And that the games on the subscriptiln service will essentialy in the end become a more fleshed out free to play game!

If the cost per month is $25 a month to play a game through a streaming service that's $300 bucks over 12 months talk about nickel and diming to death. Plus the cost of your internet and the yearly fee to play Playstation or Xbox online just not worth it and that's also if Sony or Microsoft don't jack up the Xbox Gold or PSPlus prices which they do time to time. The day physical games go straight to digital and to a streaming service is the day I stop gaming and just stick with the older consoles. Plus if some of these games do go streaming or digital a person could be screwed if the game is an exclusive like Borderlands 3 is on the Epic store Steam users are screwed.

So-called game journalists are idiots.
They even don't know key difference between gaming and film/music industories.

Film industry has theater which is their primal source of income. Streaming service is a secondary source for studios.
Music industry has concerts, of course. Streaming is not a primary income.
For them, a subscription-based service serves as secondary chance to accommodate risks of big-budget productions.

You see the point?
If gaming industry sets their primal source of income to the subscription-based service, no creative people would put efforts to make AAA scale products.

I’m okay if it’s a complimentary service offered by the major platform holders such as Games Pass and PS Now which include a large selection of first and third-party titles. Those services genuinely hold value and have allowed me to try games I otherwise wouldn’t have played. It’s also great if you have kids and don’t want to blow tonnes of cash on average games.

Having a separate subscription service for every major publisher, on other the other hand. That idea can go *%#@ itself.

I warned about this many years ago the greed will continue and it will be a class war, rich kids get everything and become the best, regular Joe does not get the full experience and never becomes the best.

Welcome to capitalism and it's just arrived at your favourite destination, gaming.

The subscription model is going to cost far too much and fall down in the long term.

Imagine paying for:
-Xbox Game Pass/xCloud
-Ps Now
-EA Access
-Uplay Plus
-Stadia
-Square Enix (They expressed interest in their own)

On top of at least 1 TV service like Netflix that's a MINIMUM of £70 every month only accounting £10 per service when most of those actually cost more. Noone spends that much on mass scale now, so why would it become the norm in the future? And let's not forget season passes, battle passes, premium currency, loot boxes and microtransactions.

People that buy digital games are technically just subscribing to that one game til the PSN/XBL/Switch/EGS/whatever servers go down just saying

But eh im cool wit hit. Just sub for one game (i did it with forza) and cancel when youre done with it. If you think youre gonna be playing it in more than 4 months then just physically buy it idk

If more and more subscription services are on the way I'll still continue as I have been until left no choice. Then no more gaming and staying retro for me

I sure as heck won't be supporting that future. I like my games to be mine, and not being behind a paywall other than the price of admission.

And down, down, down goes the quality of the games as well.

Pick and choose your services.

Subscribed to Origin Premier for 1 year, Hulu Plus every month and Elder Scrolls Online.

All I need for now.

I already pay a sub monthly to gamefly. I still buy only physical copies of games whenever possible. Owning a digital item has no value if it is not returnable and held for value in itself. So I buy a game digitally I can't return or trade or resell. I guess that's why they are trying to charm us with subs. It really is a time when gaming is about to change big time. I look forward to seeing where we all end up.

TLDR: If it comes to that, I'm out.

Why: I don't even subscribe to any online streaming service. The only subscription I have is PS plus. And that's only because I don't have a choice for online play. For games, it's simple. I want to own my entertainment. Even if it's just owning a licence to play the game on my HD or disc. It's the same reason I prefer 4K Blu-Ray discs to streaming. Not to mention the cost of subscription services ALWAYS is higher than owning. That's why gaming companies want this change. For me, what it comes down to is this. If I don't have a choice in buying outright, I'm done. Those of you who've followed my posts for years know I don't spout nonsense. If I say it, I mean it. I've got other things I can spend my time and money on and if gaming becomes a subscription service then I'll be moving on and not buying anything new without a look back. I'll still have my "old" consoles and games and can play them for free whenever the mood hits. People balk at the cost of cable or satellite, but you add up the cost of these streaming services and they are way more than cable or satellite. The same will be said about gaming when this happens because every company will want a piece of the pie. Screw that. We already pay out the pooper when it comes to gaming today compared to even ten years ago. It doesn't matter why that's a thing (higher dev costs, infrastructure, etc), what matters is it's getting to be too much. Imagine $15 a month to Capcom for a pass to play your SF game. Then $15 to Epic Megagames for Unreal Tournament 2035. Chuck in another $25 a month for a dodgy Diablo account. Add another $20 for a Final Fantasy subscription. Then tack on $10 a month for access to the PlayStation Network to play them. Throw in another $15 here or $10 there for another game you want to stream.... It adds up fast. And at the end of the day whatve you got to show for the money you spent?

Nothing.

Yeah, count me out.

Are they?

Good thing I spit

I buy ps plus every year, But that’s as far as it goes, I will never purchase a streaming service subscription for as long as I’m a gamer. I never pay full price for Ps plus annually though, I usually get it on CDKeys.com for like $40 bucks. Not bad for a year.

Forza Horizon 4 is selling more then Days Gone in UK, a game with more then a year still sells more then a recent game: https://www.chart-track.co....

We won't be fucked till the day we can't buy a game either physically or digitally, and that's at least a gen out, for most AAA titles anyway.

I have a rule, If a game is very compelling to me i will buy it full price on day one, if a game is interesting but not that exciting i will buy when it's on discount, i don't mind waiting, i don't see the appeal of game subscriptions, seem like a waste of money to me, i rather own my copy and play it when i want, i don't mind waiting for the price to go down

Honestly, as long as the subscription allows me to download games, im fine with subscriptions. Really wish UPlay+ was on consoles because "renting" Ghost Recon Breakpoint for a month at $15 would be great.

Microsoft got in very early on the subscription bandwagon and quickly realised that subscriptions lead to higher profits. Now all others have realised this too, now subscriptions are everywhere. I'm not interested in paying ongoing rent.

They are already digesting your money.

Appetite comes with eating...

Readied myself? Why? I moved away from the Xbox back to PC specifically to sidestep the whole GaaS trend. And it's not like mine is the only way to game without getting leeched to death either. You can still play on consoles without paying a dime over the up-front price of the games themselves. I think Sony in particular still leads in the traditional (and best) approach to game sales. Yeah, you can do PS Now, but you don't have to.

I'll never pay for a gaming subscription service. I'll just play old games if one day it becomes the only option.

This is just a natural evolution of Technology. Let's just enjoy the ride as we have no idea if something absolutely magnificent may come out of this. We are looking from the ground veiw.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau