What are video game subscription services?
Like the media and TV business, subscription services in the gaming industry gained a significant boost in popularity during COVID-19 as physical game sales declined and digital game sales grew. With the constant increase of the average price for a video game (most major game releases are currently priced around 70 U.S. dollars), consumers are now viewing video gaming subscription services in a new light. The average price of a video gaming subscription can vary greatly by region, with most offerings in the U.S. market starting at 9.99 U.S. dollars per month with discounts for multi-month bookings or annual passes.The majority of gamers were already familiar with their platform’s respective subscription services as these were a must-have to access online multiplayer for major titles like FIFA or Call of Duty. Many services offer a monthly selection of free games to their subscribers, as well as other subscriber-only perks such as cloud storage, exclusive discounts, and game-related content. Services like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass have several subscription tiers at different price points, with the more expensive offerings also including a catalogue of games available for the subscriber at no extra cost. However, a significant drawback of subscription services is that these games and features are only available to users if they have an active subscription and cannot be accessed as soon as the subscription expires. In addition to console manufacturers, video game publishers like Electronic Arts or Ubisoft, as well as content distributor platforms like Humble Bundle, Google, and Apple have also started offering subscriptions to their game libraries.
For hardware-challenged gamers, cloud gaming services are specific types of video gaming subscription services that cater to their lack of powerful gaming devices. Cloud gaming services allow users to stream games remotely from servers without having to install them on their own devices and subsequently bypass possible hardware limitations. Popular cloud gaming subscription services include GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, and Boosteroid.
What are the leading video game subscription services?
All three major console makers – Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo – offer their own video game subscription services. Sony’s subscription offering is PlayStation Plus which launched in 2010. It rebranded and restructured in mid-2022 to integrate Sony’s PlayStation Now cloud gaming service. Currently, there are more than 47 million PS Plus subscribers worldwide, 14.1 million of which are on the higher-priced Extra or Premium tiers which include a video game library of current and previous PlayStation console titles.No slouch either, Microsoft offers the Xbox Game Pass (first released in 2017) and the PC Game Pass as subscription services for to an expansive, rotating video game library, as well as the Xbox Live Gold services for online multiplayer access (Xbox Live Gold is included in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription plan). Although trailing PS Plus in terms of subscriptions, the Xbox Game Pass is the leading video game service by brand awareness in the United States.
Nintendo was the last of the three big console manufacturers to join the online subscription service club – Nintendo Switch Online was officially launched in September 2018 and originally offered online multiplayer, cloud saving, voice chat via smartphone app, digital goodies as well as access to a library of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and Game Boy (GB) games. The service was expanded in 2021 when a higher-paying tier with a library of Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy Games was introduced. The NSO service has been criticized for its comparably small library of games but still boats a ten percent usage rate among gamers in the United States.
According to an October 2022 gaming household survey in the United States, 58 percent of respondents consider the Xbox Live or Xbox Game Pass as a must-have subscription service, while Ubisoft+ was most likely to be ranked as a nice-to-have (could do without) service.
Subscription services: the next stage of platform wars
Back in 2020, Microsoft stated that the Xbox Game Pass was not necessarily meant to be profitable but designed to be a feature to draw players onto the platform. This tactic gained major publicity during Microsoft’s January 2022 blockbuster acquisition of major video game publisher Activision Blizzard. As of June 2023, the deal is still up for approval with several major regulators as the Microsoft platform exclusivity of several Activision Blizzard titles raised concerns among consumer rights advocates. A May 2023 survey of U.S. gamers found that more than half of respondents were concerned about such mega mergers monopolizing the game industry. Microsoft has since taken steps to sign multiple 10-year deals with cloud gaming services to bring Xbox games on PC to Nvidia's GeForce Now, Boosteroid, Ubitus, and Nware.
