| JEMC said: They've said that they were giving away games to grow their customer base, but the free games won't be a thing forever. It's not sustainable for long, at least with big AA or AAA games. And it's fine and perfectly understandable, I don't think they can go with a subscription service right now because their most popular games are free, making money with in-game microtransactions. They'll need to buy and grow a bigger library to be able to pull that off. But, on the other hand, they will eventually go with streaming content because, like it or not (I don't), that's where the industry will go, just like we went from physical games to digital distribution. And you can bet that Valve and GOG (if they have the resources) will also go that way in time. |
Correct. EA tried this during their early years with Origin, and while I did accept a few games via their program, I knew it wouldn't last forever. Epic's program seems to have lasted longer than EA's, but I feel that is because Epic has more to lose if they didn't try compared to Epic, who have multiple IP's to stand on and already sell towards the big 3 and PC in general (they were still on Steam at the time after all).
The model itself was always destined to be a finite one, since it does still cost money to even make those games free to the consumer.
Yeah, they likely won't be getting away with a sub model anytime soon, at least not until 2026, one year after their supposed prediction of making said profits, but I do know they will eventually follow that model, because the other big publishers are still doing it, and I know Epic isn't entirely deaf to following some trends.
Their main problem is that they have all those people, and they eventually will need that consumer base to start buying games on their client, instead of just a handful. At this moment in time they are talking about profits made on PC, yet I know there is a very high chance that it is people spending money on their MT's, especially with the games they own like Fortnite and those other two games they bought out.
Valve will likely go that route eventually, but I am hoping they do not 1:1 copy the model MS is currently aiming for, because that also happens to be the model Ubisoft has been salivating over and cheering to the heavens. I also know that whatever Valve seems to do, Epic ends up doing the opposite, so those two never really seem to do end up using the exact same models as one another.
Step right up come on in, feel the buzz in your veins, I'm like an chemical electrical right into your brain and I'm the one who killed the Radio, soon you'll all see
So pay up motherfuckers you belong to "V"
