BY MARK PARVIN: I feel like a dinosaur – which is entirely appropriate considering the video game I am about to mention. That game is 3D Monster Maze for the ZX81, and it was the first game I ever bought that made me go “wow”.
Kotaku writes: "These companies are bleeding me dry. Starfield on Game Pass. Sea of Stars on PS Plus. Ahsoka on Disney Plus. The Last of Us on (HBO) Max. Subscription services used to make me feel like I was getting away with something. Cheaper, easier entertainment at the click of a button. No commercials, Fewer risks. Hassle-free. Now the magic’s wearing off and the prices are going up. I think it might be time to cancel."
This is how capitalist companies give costumers an illusion of choice, when the whole time they are just guiding us to an planned goal.
When movie and music industries beginning to move away from discrete sales to subscription - something only viable because new technology have emerged - they have well known and documented steps. The first is make the old product inconvenient, at least in costumers mind. Them they offer a practical, cheap and convenient alternative "as a service", them the new model will grow until it, eventually, surpass the old model. When there's no coming back, they skyrocket the price to cover all the lost profits from transition phase and to make profits bigger, because capitalism needs continuous and infinite growing.
This model, sooner or later, is going to be applied on everything possible. From cars to food. It's too good for the companies to not pursuit. It gives total control over products and costumers are tied to those companies to access products. There's no more ownership in the old sense.
They are already doing it to cars. They are starting lock stuff like carplay, ac, heated/cool seats, etc. behind subscription paywall. People are too stupid/crave instant gratification to see the issue in the LONG term. I think it will take something like government interference when this stuff inevitably gets out of hand in the future. Similar to how Apple is being forced to finally use universal USB-C for all their products. I think something like when you contribute x amount of money to a subscription that's equivalent to a retail purchase, you get to own a game, movie, album, car feature etc of your choice. It sucks that ownership is being taking away from us.
Truth. BMW wanted to lock out heated car seats with a subscription. They argued that owners typically don't use seat heaters in summer. Jesus imagine paying for that bullshit.
The car one is mental, imagine paying for a car with all the features, but being unable to use said features without a subscription, subscriptions have been getting out of hand for years now.
Already did, paying to use online is already dumb as hell, I'm certainly not paying $80 to do so, I'm done, I barley play multiplayer games anyways
I canceled mine too a time ago. I only play SP games and I rather just buy them when they release.
Same here, used to play COD and Battlefield and just got tired of the same old shite. Sports game’s literally haven’t improved in like 20 years and there’s still too much lag to enjoy a competitive match no matter the game. Fighters are the last good online gaming experience and even that’s dodgy. I’m canceling when my Plus expires in a couple months too. These free games are straight trash.
The only sub you need is gamepass if you own both ps5 & xbox.
Day one Zenimax & Activison + third party.
White subscriptions are -for the time being- convenient for some people and an option, given the situation in other markets (video, music, movies even car industry, phone apps), everything is moving into a subscription only future.
Even the photo apps I downloaded in the past for a few euros for the full unlock, are now locked under a subscription model that would have cost me numerous times the asking price (let alone the lack of ownership).
This is not the future that we want but it is most certainly the future Microsoft wants with Gamepass.
So while you are attracted to the value opposition of the service, the bigger picture is that Gamepass locks games out of competing consoles (by requiring studio purchases to support to the offerings of the service) and provides guidance to the other two competitors for launching similar services.
Sony has already their subscription online and Nintendo replaced virtual store with monthly subscription on a low offering service.
For HBO and Disney+ you can wait for the blu rays thats what I did with all three seasons of Picard. As for PS Plus and Gamepass you're on your own I'd rather own the game then pay a streaming service to game.
I mean is it? I have PS, Gamepass and Netflix. Which totals about £15 a month. I don't consider that bad for all the media I need.
Math capabilities? Perhaps ask.
My PS Plus was £58 for a year. My Gamepass was £110 for 3 years (gold upgrade trick) and my Netflix is £7 a month. £58+£36.66+£84= £178.66
£178.66/12 =£14.89 a month
If it's drama you want, Solace State on Xbox and PC is going to bring it.
