Train2Game students may have to pay subscription fees to play EA Sports titles in future. That’s according to label Vice President Andrew Wilson who believes there will “absolutely” be a time when plays will want to “access” EA Sports games via subscriptions.
It’s a statement that may initially not go down well with Train2Game students, but it could help them make more revenue from games in the future.
“If we look at what consumers have pushed other industries for: if we look at what consumers forced the music industry to provide, if we look at what consumers have driven as a result of television and movie subscription” Wilson told Eurogamer.
“If you look at us – there’s absolutely a time somewhere at some point in the future where the consumers say, ‘Hey, this is how we want to interact with you: we want to give you a monthly or annual subscription and we want access to everything you make,'”
“They get to drive the time and place for it, and a lot of it is technology dependent, but absolutely we can see a future where that might be the way we deliver games.”
Wilson added that it isn’t current gen consoles that are holding this model back, but internet connections.
“It’s less about the generation and more about internet infrastructure,” he said.
“The thing about consoles [is] that’s a lot of content: six, seven gigs of information. Right now there are some places in the world where you can move that size of information around relatively seamlessly; there are a lot of places you can’t.
“Right now the consoles themselves could facilitate it,” he added, “but there are other barriers to entry that make getting it from Game or GameStop a viable proposition, at least today.”
That last part sounds somewhat familiar, with as reported by the Train2Game blog, Sony previously stating that they want to sell PSN content – currently only available digitally – at traditional retail.
Of course, the games industry already has many subscription based services, with World of Warcraft being the most high profile. As previously mentioned by the Train2Game blog, World of Warcraft has over 12 million subscribers, showing that if people like a game, they’re more than happy to pay a subscription fee.
Therefore, in the future, working on a subscription based game could potentially be lucrative for Train2Game students.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts? Are subscription fees for all games inevitable? Would people pay?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: Eurogamer]
