Ubisoft has found itself in a bit of hot water with fans after its Director of Subscriptions (a dystopian job if ever I heard one) Philippe Tremblay took part in aninterview with gameindustry.biz. This comes after the rebranding and repricing of Ubisoft’s own subscription service, Uplay+ (now Ubisoft Plus), which will be bundling its Multi-Access (i.e. multi-platform) and PC Access subscriptions into one $17.99 monthly price. This will grant players access to the entire Ubisoft library, including new Day One games likethe excellent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, across Xbox, PC, and Amazon Luna, with seamless crossplay. Ubisoft seems to be doubling down on the subscription model with the belief that subscription services are going to play a large role in the future of gaming. If Game Pass is any indication, he’s probably not wrong when it comes to the value of subscription services.
A Bleak Vision
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.
Tremblay’s words raise an eyebrow here. Tremblay noted that Ubisoft has no plans to discontinue the ability to own their games physically or digitally. In essence, but he’s expressing what he believes to be a necessary shift in gamer habits in order for subscription models to earn a bigger slice of the industry. And that shift is for us to become ‘comfortable not owning our games.’
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It’s certainly in a better state than it was a couple of months ago.
Physical media aside, the concept of ownership is still quite strong in the gaming community. Even Microsoft, which releases first-party games Day One on Game Pass, continues to offer their first-party games on storefronts instead of pushing the subscription service on those who aren’t interested. Comparing the concept of ownership to a box of DVDs (not blu-rays?) just seems a little out of date and out of touch, and the idea of conditioning gamers to turn away from the importance of actually owning their games is a tad troubling.
Larian Studios, the makers of 2023’s incredible Baldur’s Gate 3, recently said they would never put their game on Game Pass, insisting their game is worth the full price of admission.
This is a very bad look for Ubisoft. I’m left wondering why anyone from a major gaming company would ever make such a clearly divisive statement. The phrasing leaves a lot to be desired, making it sound as if a significant segment of gamers need to change their habits for these large companies to thrive.
Tremblay’s statement seems totally oblivious to one of the things that the gaming community values most. He doesn’t recognize the value of ownership at all. If someone buys a game likeAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, they’ll have access to over one hundred hours of content. If you’re not a voracious gamer, that much content might last you a few months, making the idea of owning a game much more appealing. There’s certainly value to the subscription model (much more so Game Pass than Uplay+, mind), but Tremblay seems to be envisioning a future where subscriptions become the dominant means of game consumption.
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While Tremblay mentions the value of simply subscribing when you want to play instead of a continuous subscription, this adds an extra barrier to replaying games. People (like me) who enjoy replaying the games they own don’t have to do anything in order to boot up an old favorite. It costs nothing for me to spin up my copy ofRed Dead Redemption 2on a random day. In a world dominated by streaming, I would need to consider which service has my old favorite game and what it will cost me to play it again. That’s not exactly a utopian or appealing idea.
Tremblay also fails to recognize the role of developers in this process. Swen Vincke, Head of Larian Studios, the makers of 2023’s incredibleBaldur’s Gate 3, recently said theywould not put their game on Game Pass, insisting their game is worth the full price of admission. Since Tremblay’s comments, he’s even taken to Twitter to reiterate his aversion to a subscription-based future in gaming:
Not only do I agree, but I also think it would be harmful for all developers to feel as if they have to strike a deal with a subscription service to succeed, which less affluent studios than Larian often do. Consumers should always have the ability to put their money directly into the pockets of developers they want to support, and I don’t see that going anywhere anytime soon.
