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cross-posted from: https://yiffit.net/post/475688
Xbox Game Pass Core subscribers will get access to a small selection of the games available with the regular/higher tiers of Game Pass, starting with more than 25 games
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2 years ago I had to move to a temp place. First evening, I unpacked my PS3 which I hadn't had time for for a long time. Lots of games on it (and on discs), so I could just sit and play Journey.
Had all my games had been this subscription sort, I'd have nothing.
Now I know you can still buy games - for now, anyway. But since these companies make you pay for multiplayer anyway, it's an easy upsell for them. Just pay a bit more and you can play so many games... Just pay forever.
I get your fear, but how is this any different (it's actually much cheaper) than the rentals of old?
If you mean renting physical stuff like cartridges, there's a limited amount of physical goods, so you rent what you need temporarily, and buy what you want to keep, just like with a moving van or whatever.
With digital goods, any scarcity is artificial. Any price change is just changing the number in a database. The whole concept is to make you pay for stuff you don't need, and you won't even be bothered by it, because there's no physical clutter.
Subscriptions are the next level, to make you keep in perpetuity, forever, whether you're using the service or not, and to make you afraid of ever cancelling lest you lose all "your" games.
Worse, in cases like this it's even an easy upsell for them, because first they paywall multiplayer from you (which is ridiculous since you're already paying for the game and console) and then they go "oh pay just some more to get all this"... Creating a problem and selling you the solution.
And also don't forget that the conditions and price that are now won't last. Remember when Netflix had everything and was really cheap.
I'm not great at explaining this, but it's just overall a rotten business model.
When compared to the rental service it's absolutely superior. Selection is limited, but it's cheaper for sure. Before you payed per day per item, or had a subscription not unlike what we have now and still likely payed after renting so many items in a month's time.
And in terms of paywall for multiplayer, they've been doing that since the original days of Microsoft consoles. It's nothing new, you know it when you purchase an Xbox. I don't like it, so I don't buy Xboxes. I stopped buying PlayStations when Sony started. That said I do pay for Xbox Game Pass because the value I get is worth the cost.
I'm not gonna argue over the digital/physical divide and artificial scarcity. You're not wrong, but that doesn't have much bearing when you're talking about $15 a month to play a rotating catalogue of games for as long as they're on the service.