Now that these services became huge, can we see benefit in having so many pay for them?

I think it's terrible. Take Crunchyroll for example, it's cheaper than PS+ and has less than 1/20 of the userbase. It's apparently enough to license, translate, distribute dozens of weekly anime, paying to producers and making profit, profit big enough to be called unfair by many in the anime scene.

So where is that money going to?  Well the game licenses I suppose should make only a small percentage, as Sony and MS are logically only paying a bit more than the expected revenue left from old games which likely have already sold over 95% of what they would despite the subs, and I'm talking only about the revenue expected from the subscripted. It's naive and contrary to market law to think otherwise.

Online services? Well, no. Take usenet for example, they easily have 10 times that cost for a bit more money.

Even worse than using the money for other stuff, I think it's creating a culture of "I won't buy it because it will be free", devaluating older games, and supporting good and bad developers alike. Remember I'm not talking from a consumer standpoint, subscribing is a good idea for the individual, but I think games would have higher quality without it.

Good for the industry. Consistent revenue stream. PS Plus has so much value.

Sony and MS are definitely ripping people off for asking $60 a year just to play online games.

Id say good.

I would definitely agree that paying $60 a year is way too much, but I'm not against of the idea of the service as they would be losing money if didn't, as the servers cost them money to have. I'd rather pay half that price even if it meant online was the only feature you got.

Just as consumer friendly as any other unnecessary paywall.

It's good for the industry. But it is troublesome for a customer, especially if they are still children.

Still against them, at least for online. That won't change.

You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

The title and the poll don't match at all.

Anyway, they're probably good for the industry because not only are they still happening, but both Microsoft and Nintendo have jumped on the subscription bandwagon with Sony. If they weren't good, they wouldn't be happening. Maybe some parties gain more and some even lose some, but overall, they're probably good. Good for the quality of games? I don't see how they could be good, but they're probably not bad either.

Personally I don't like subscriptions very much. On one hand, offering games with subscriptions is extra value, but on the other hand, online play is still locked behind a paywall, and I couldn't disagree more with that part. Personally I don't like online play very much, but I wouldn't mind trying it out every now and then. However, with the subscription model, I don't even have a chance, unless I dish out a decent sum of money for a couple of hours of online play. There needs to be a fair model for us who play just a little online.