The data suggests some gamers are partially treating the service to trial or even rent a game they might be interested in, before unsubscribing.
This is me. I often subscribe when there’s a discount, go through some games I’m not interested in buying but want to play anyways. Xbox game pass specifically has a lot of great indies that can be finished relatively quickly.
I subscribed earlier this year for a month, might resubscribe for a month again later this year.
Same here. Game pass is a pretty good deal even at full price for playing AAA single player games that you won’t touch after a single play through. Plus, there’s a lot of games that I wouldn’t have given a shot if I didn’t happen to have Game Pass at the time.
Same here. I use GamePass and PS Plus to play games I’m interested in but not enough to buy right out the gate. I enjoy finding games that I’ve never heard of and enjoy. If I like it enough, I’ll buy it.
Churn is inevitable with any subscription service.
The trick is creating just enough value and exclusive content/services that you feel like you’re gonna miss out if you leave. But not too much.
I haven’t seen any incentive to stay with any specific game subscription service via exclusive content or services. But I do see plenty of attempts to lock people into services with shitty tactics. Like forcing save data to the cloud. Good luck moving that saved file to your own personal copy of the game. Or multiple tiered service options with features/games locked behind more expensive options.
It’s all manipulative and anti consumer.
It grinds my gears that sony software locked the ability to backup saves locally on the PS5 making a PS plus subscription the only way to have a backup of save games. I don’t play multiplayer and don’t play the monthly free games either so I have to pay a premium for the rest of my life to get a basic functionality that was present in ps4 but got nerfed for some dubious reasons in ps5. The recent ps plus price hike was the last straw so I ditched my PS and got into PC gaming and loving it so far.
It’s still crazy to me that this somehow became normal. I’m not paying rent for a fucking video game. Hell I’m not even paying in general, least of all for Ubisoft or some other Activision-Blizzard-EA shlock.
Looks like I’m in the minority, but I subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online. My wife and I enjoy the extra Mario kart courses and I personally enjoy the N64 virtual console.
I think enough people have been exposed to enough subscription services that customers have started taking inventory of what they’re paying per month that they didn’t used to do, which means often signing up for a month and then quitting. I’m simultaneously surprised and not surprised that the access to online multiplayer only accounts for about 30% of the reason people subscribe to these things, but then those same customers doing that same accounting of their personal finances have probably done the math to realize that, long term, it’s cheaper to just play games online on PC, which is leading to consoles performing the way they’re performing lately.
long term, it’s cheaper to just play games online on PC
The companies are clearly coming to terms with this, as well. I’ll be avoiding Sony games on PC for the foreseeable future - after the Helldivers debacle, it’s clear that Sony is looking for ways to monetize PC players.
I actually just cancelled my GamePass last night. I rarely use it, as I spend most of my time gaming on steam, and I own almost all the games I want to play.
I have barely any subscriptions for anything anymore and once Gamepass expires (I did the £1 upgrade offer) I will not renew.
I just chop and change to whatever I want for the month but overall I don’t really use many paid services anymore.
Gamepass because I don’t even own an Xbox. I pay $15/ month for wow so having game pass with a shitload of games for basically the same price is a no brainer
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I subscribed to Game Pass for a year or so. It was a good value but it got to the point where there were just too many games and not enough time to play them. I kept subscribing for the $1 per month trick, but once that ended I canceled.
When Manor Lords came out in early access I found a good deal for a month of Game Pass, that just expired.
I bought 3 years of Gamepass when they had that $1 upgrade thing and right before they increased the local pricing. Will probably be the only and final subscription I have when it’s over in a couple of years
I have the Nintendo one, originally for animal crossing and now it’s more because my 2 year old likes Super Mario 64 and I do not want to set her up on a PC to emulate it quite yet. Switch is a lot easier on her tiny baby hands, plus handhelds are more intuitive.
My stepdad has Xboxs thing, which works for him anyway. Given he’s retired and has time but not a lot of money, it’s a better bang for his buck (plus he’s not exactly planning on living forever).
Xbox gamepass: for my kids, but they’re not really using it, so I may cancel it for good.
Ps plus: for me, I prefer PlayStation over Xbox and I love all the classic PlayStation games on it.
NSO: cloud saves, that’s pretty much it, but I just cancelled it today because I just don’t use it and neither do the kids.
I personally am a pirate but xbox gamepass is a very popular way to play games in my cpuntry because people csn’t afford games anymore
