gaming Industry moving from annual releases to subscription services?

[Denim&Venöm 20,477]

So this isn't set in stone, but it says a lot that EA, the kings of the annual release w/ Madden & FIFA, may ditch their time tested formula for a subscription based long term game in the vein of an MMO, where it's patches, updates and character additions or subtractions to keep it current, and players paying a monthly fee (as well as micro-transactions and season passes) to be in on the experience. It may very well save on advertising and making of physical copies, which would cripple the retail and resale industry even harder. 

If this does go through, how do you see things panning out? What if 2K, owners of the annual NBA & WWE games, or even activision w/ their CoD series all move from annual sequel to subscription based games? How do you see the future of gaming being impacted? Subscription services like Netflix have changed television. Will a subscription model do the same for gaming? 

[Megas 28,139]

This should have been the norm for sports games from the start, since they're usually just roster updates. 

[Sparklefan1234 180,911]

4 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

What if 2K, owners of the annual NBA & WWE games, or even activision w/ their CoD series all move from annual sequel to subscription based games?

 

If 2K does that with their "WWE 2K" series I may not want to buy their games anymore. 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Sparklefan1234

[Denim&Venöm 20,477]

15 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

If 2K does that with their "WWE 2K" series I may not want to buy their games anymore. 

Though to be fair, there isn't a whole lot of improvement from game to game as it is. 

[Sparklefan1234 180,911]

Just now, Denim&Venom said:

Though to be fair, there isn't a whole lot of improvement from game to game as it is. 

 

That's true & they do seem to be shipped with more & more issues as the years go on.

[Denim&Venöm 20,477]

15 hours ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

 

That's true & they do seem to be shipped with more & more issues as the years go on.

that and every feature that's added seems to be taken away a game or two later. Outside of slightly more polished graphics and an updated roster, what do we truly get w/ a new game?

A subscription game would give us more features and updates without the wait or the cost.

The only draw backs I see are when the price adds up, how season passes will be thrown in and that we still probably won't get the engine overhaul the franchise needs.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

Sadly, Activision will never move away from annual releases. We are talking about a company that releases a CoD game every year for $60, with a $50 season pass and microtransactions, without dedicated servers, every year. They clearly are having a laugh with it every time so they won't stop. To me, Activision is worse than EA.

EA though, it is nice to see them consider this. I never understood the point of yearly sports games, simply because they could easily be updated with enhancements and roster additions year by year. Sure, before the era of patches and whatnot, I could see it I guess, but these days there's simple solutions. A lot more simple to making a new game, having to market it every year and release to the masses.

I have my doubts of 2K following this trend. With their apparent recent announcements of wanting to go microtransaction crazy with their new games, it seems greed is becoming a large policy for them.

[Nerdy Luigi 2,065]

On ‎11‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 3:58 PM, Kyoshi said:

Sadly, Activision will never move away from annual releases. We are talking about a company that releases a CoD game every year for $60, with a $50 season pass and microtransactions, without dedicated servers, every year. They clearly are having a laugh with it every time so they won't stop. To me, Activision is worse than EA..

Of course not. If the quality of the games themselves says anything, they only care about money.