Are subscriptions good for the industry?

[aLkaLiNE]

Alkibiádēs said:

aLkaLiNE said:

If you can't afford $60 a year ($5 a month) on an online subscription (where WoW players pay $75 every 6 months to play a single game) that grants you access to online play, cloud features (share play, cloud saving), 4-6 free games a month and steep discounts on a weekly basis for popular games then you might be in the wrong market. We are a tech driven niche after all right? What's the point in pursuing the medium if no advancements are made? A lot of the innovation comes from the hardware side of things, but just as much has to do with software, and networking/infrastructure. Without the Ps+ requirement, which is driving profit for the division, we would very likely see a largely scaled back effort with AAA marketing rights, investment in first party IP/output and R&D spent on riskier ventures. Look at PSVR for example. First to console market, but it also has to forge a new path not yet traveled by anyone else and they surely weren't profitable out the gate. What allows such a product to exist? PS+ helps offset the cost of things like that. Hard to imagine how Sony would have looked this gen without the extra income generated by that service. I'll gladly contribute my $5 a month since it will be returned in spades with free games and the savings I get on PSN, besides the most obvious point of being allowed to play online.

What innovations have been made? I can play online on my PC for free and it's a far better experience than whatever Sony and MS can offer. 

If Sony can't afford to innovate without charging for online than they shouldn't be in the business to begin with.

Sony's subscription shouldn't include online play. Let people pay for the "free" games and discounts. I imagine the amount of subscribers would greatly decline though (further driving home the point that most consumers only pay for this subscription for the online play, and not the "free" games or discounts). 

It's also a more expensive experience (for It to be better) and not nearly as easy to use. You're also prone to viruses which isn't a concept on console.

 

SharePlay is an innovation for instance. Remote Play is an innovation. PSNow is an innovation. They might not be widely used, but that's moreso a problem with Sony than it is with the actual execution of each concept. Those are all fairly recent too. And actually, before this gen and even at the starting of this gen, Sony has always been a loss leading console maker that made profit back through software. This is great for the consumer, but think about this ~ the cost of a AAA game has been $60 for over a decade now. That has remained stagnant. What hasn't remained stagnant is development costs for software. Gamers want bigger, more interactive worlds, with smaller and smaller details with an arms race toward photo realistic graphics. This is being partially offset by season passes and DLC but that's often times not enough as we have seen numerous AA, AAA and Indie teams collapse after lackluster sales. This ALSO needs to be offset. PS+ probably helps with that too, as we've seen far more exclusives come to Sonys system than the competitors the past few years.