Ubisoft Subscription Department Head Says Gamers Should Get More Comfortable Not Owning Their Games
Image Source: Wallpapers Den
Physical media for movies and series is increasingly leaving brick-and-mortar store shelves like Best Buy and subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Max, Apple TV+, etc. are proliferating rapidly and becoming a significant source for movie and television viewing for many people. It now appears that the gaming industry, or at least some game publishers like Ubisoft, may be starting to talk about shifting their business model in a similar direction for their games and one of its executives, Philippe Tremblay, head of Ubisoft’s subscription department, appears to have ruffled some feathers among many players and developers by saying out loud what many of them have already started worrying about.
Tremblay recently commented that people are used to owning their games, but have gotten comfortable with not owning their music and movies, the implication seeming to be that people should start to get used to a subscription model for everything, including games.
RELATED:
Tremblay also sought to tamp down on concerns about losing progress on games due to losing access to games available via their subscription model, saying:
"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.”
If the reaction by many players and developers is any indication, Tremblay’s comments appear to have not sufficiently assuaged their concerns. One such critic, Sven Vincke, the founder of Larian Studios (Baldur’s Gate), had this to say in one response on X:
Additionally, there is evidence that lack of physical media ownership has already begun causing heightened concern about people’s ability to retain access to digitally purchased content in general. The most concerning incident in recent history is Sony PlayStation removing hundreds of shows and thousands of digitally purchased episodes of shows from Discovery+, reportedly due to licensing issues, at the end of last year. Some of these shows include Mythbusters, My 600-Pound Life, and Deadliest Catch, to name a few. Incidents like this have the potential to make comments like Tremblay’s all that more alarming for consumers when it comes to deciding on digital purchases and/or purchasing media subscriptions of any kind.
READ NEXT:
Source(s): Gizmodo, Tom’s Hardware, IGN, Forbes
Latest News
Featured
