Outer Wilds Dev Is Right: Game Subscriptions Are Great for the Industry
An Outer Wilds developer recently discussed how good Game Pass was for the game. He's right, game subscriptions are great. | Credit: korobskyph/Shutterstock.com
- Game subscription services seem to be doing quite well in the industry.
- One of the developers behind Outer Wilds recently spoke out about how great Game Pass had been for the game.
- He’s right, game subscriptions are great for the industry and for gamers.
Game subscriptions are the future of gaming. The writing has been on the wall for a while now. The advent of the internet has meant that most forms of media trend towards greater freedom of choice. This is why services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime do so well. It seems like the devs of Outer Wilds agree.
In a recent interview with GameIndustry.Biz , Outer Wilds producer Loan Verneau talked about the impact Game Pass had on the game. It was overall very positive. According to Verneau, many people played the game who otherwise would not have done so. I have to agree. Game subscriptions are great for the industry.
Outer Wilds Isn’t the Only Game to Benefit
Game subscription services benefit everyone involved. For developers, it means that more people get to try out their games. If they enjoy the game, they’ll probably continue to follow the developer’s future work too. Plus, it gets more people talking about games too.
For gamers, subscriptions do a lot of good. They can help to reduce prices quite dramatically. At full price, a game runs around $60. Even the most extravagantly priced subscriptions don’t cost that every month. So if you play more than a single game each month, you’re saving yourself a ton of money.
That doesn’t even begin to count everything. It’s been proven that subscriptions get players to try out new genres . This means you might discover an entirely new genre you love. Most people wouldn’t sink $60 to try something new out, which leads into the biggest thing game subscriptions can do for us – variety.
Game Subscriptions Will Bring Back the Weird
Anyone who was around during the PS1 era will probably remember how weird things got. We had a successful game based around being a cartoon pirate ship. There was also that game made up entirely of dreams. What I am saying is that developers and publishers weren’t afraid to try things out.
The indie games industry has sort of pulled that off. The only issue is that it’s on a much smaller scale. Game subscriptions allow developers to go crazy. If people won’t have to sink full-price on your strange surrealist experiment, they’re more likely to play it. This would revive some variety in the mainstream games market.
Over the next few years, we’re likely to see more companies jumping on the bandwagon in a similar way to media companies creating subscriptions after Netflix proved it could work. With Game Pass being as successful as it is, it won’t be long before Nintendo and Sony copy the idea in full.
