A chunk of the discourse this generation has revolved around subscriptions, and Sony’s reluctance to offer its first-party releases day one with PS Plus. Many felt that the PS5 would begin to fall behind its rivals due to a perceived lack of value compared to competing services like Xbox Game Pass, but in reality the whole segment is starting to flatten out – at least in the USA.
According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, “subscription spend growth is slowing”. This obviously doesn’t mean that the growth has completely stopped, but it does suggest that unless something dramatic changes, it is beginning to level off. Sony has, from the start, insisted that PS Plus is a supplementary revenue stream to its traditional business model, which is selling games full-price at both retail and through its digital storefront.
PS Plus has, over the past few years, topped out at about 50 million subscribers – although the platform holder has successfully increased the revenue of the service per member by introducing new, higher value tiers in PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium. It would appear, though, unless trends change dramatically over the coming months, subscriptions may not be the future of the industry after all. That makes sense to us, as video games are not as passive as television and music, where it’s easier to consume a large amount of content in a shorter span of time.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 62
Well, considering stuff is taken off it regularly...
I completely agree with that last sentence.
Obviously it's not the same for everyone, but for myself TV and Music are disposable.
I watch the midweek movie, I go to the cinema a few times a year, but I only pick up the blu ray or the 4K disc for franchises that I can't live without.
Otherwise Netflix will do.
I consume games in a completely different way. Most of the games I engage with I consume for dozens if not 100s of hours each, sometimes across a period of several years.
Given my gaming habits, sub services were only ever supplementary for me. PS Plus Extra is useful for games I'm curious about, but if I'm really interested in a game I'll own it.
We've seen from Netflix last year that subscriptions eventually plateau. I don't think it helps when there's too many choices, seven years ago it was great to only buy 2 or 3 subs to access everything, now though everyone wants a piece of the pie.
As for the gaming side of it, we've already seen that plateau, Plus can't quite hit 50m and Game Pass's numbers must have really slowed since haven't been quick to update their numbers. Games take way longer to complete then most films and TV shows, so it's harder to get your money's worth from them.
Like recently I started Ghostwrite Tokyo but haven't played for 4 days due to doing my daily run on Fortnite plus prepping for Burning Shores, curse of the backlog and all that.
I think in tough economic situations, subscriptions are the first to go when belt-tightening. They add up so quickly.
There’s just so many subscriptions. With food inflation the way it is as well… these are the first things to go.
Really curious to see what happens to gamepass once the Activision deal goes through. Prices are going to have to go up, but if members don't increase it's going to be bad. Microsoft is taking a big gamble.
The world economy crashed and hasn't recovered. The first thing on the chopping block is entertainment. That means people will cancel or not bother with subscriptions at all. Considering subscriptions mean you don't own the content, that could be another detractor.
Sadly, gaming is no longer a consideration for many that have lost their jobs. How many tens of thousands from the tech sector alone have been fired this year alone?
It's odd how people target subscriptions so quickly when trying to save money. They're ridiculous value for money, usually. Me and my dad went to watch John Wick 4 the other day - £22. Now that's more than two months of Netflix and almost 3 months of Prime Video. My friend took his kid and some of his friends to watch the Mario movie and it cost £100. That's more then a year of Prime at £95 a year - and if you watched a movie each day on Prime, even with 9 other people, it'd be 26p per film. Do the same at the cinema and it'd cost over £40,000.
I mean, even silly things like if you bought a Tesco meal deal each day, no one would think that was an extravagant lifestyle but that's almost £1500 a year. In the fact of that, £95 for Amazon Prime seems practically free. Even if you ludicrously stacked up 14 subs, it'd be cheaper than daily Tesco sandwiches.
This isn't just gaming - you can read similar articles about streaming services in general. People aren't signing up for new stuff. Many, like me, are surfing - sign up for one service for a month or two, catch up on whatever it has I like, cancel, then sign up for the next one and repeat.
That can happen for Game Pass and PS Plus, too. Why pay every month if you can skip a month and spend your time elsewhere? That's even more true for Game Pass which doesn't offer huge discounts for buying a lot in advance - as opposed to PS Plus, where if you wait for November you can get an annual subscription for half price, making it a better deal.
Many of us switched to streaming services because cable's all-you-can-eat pricing was too much. Streaming is turning into the same thing - unless you pick and choose, and cancel what you're not watching.
Subscription and game sales down must be a sign of the harsh economic times. Hopefully things look brighter for everyone soon
MS won’t like to hear this. They are committed to trying to get everyone with a phone or TV screen onto Gamepass.
Looks like the only way they’ll do that is if it makes no financial sense to get these games anywhere else. By buying them all and putting them on there for example.
I’ve changed my habit to instead of subscribing for a year at 100 bucks hoping maybe to get some games I might play throughout the year, I now wait until there’s a game I actually want, and spend 15 bucks for the month or possibly 3 month sub max then let it lapse. Works for most single player games. I don’t think I’ll ever have a lasting ps+ sub again. Just way too much of a gamble each month
If only they would just remove online subscription from ps plus...
Sounds like the economic down turn hasn't hit hard enough yet that Sony is getting upto 300%+ sales in the likes of Europe. If it had I'd have expected sales of full priced games to decline & subscriptions to possibly rise. But like others have said let's see what happens when Microsoft & Sony put more first party software on there services.
Yay. Maybe it's reached a saturation point. And then we can focus on more traditional ways to play games instead of trying to force me into subscription, looking at you game pass
I didn’t bother renewing my PS+ Sub when it ran out last year. I don’t play online much except Fortnite (and you don’t need PS+ to play that). Now I just buy a month here and there when I need to. I bought a month of PS+ yesterday so I could download HFW to play the Burning Shores dlc.
On the entertainment side however, there has been a subscription massacre. I’ve cancelled Prime Video, Apple TV, Now Cinema, Now Entertainment and soon to be joining them: Netflix (once they bring in their greedy password sharing ban). The only one I’ll be keeping is Disney+, unless they start with the greedy practices too.
I dropped down from the full PS Premium back to just PS Plus.
Mostly because I could not find the time to play the extra games. Being able to keep Plus games in my library allows me to play them any time i wish.
@cragis0001
Rightfully or wrongfully a economic downturn does not affect everyone so I'm sure there's still growth to have if at a slower rate. I would say like others in gaming, time is a more precious commodity than value. As in I'd rather pay more to play what I really want than play average games
The only subscription I truly care about is Crunchyroll. I mean $8 a month and I typically watch at least one episode of something a day. It's hard to argue with. Game Pass and PS+ just don't make as much sense to me.
Most people only play a few games a year. Even I, as a hardcore enthusiast, barely touch the games on PS Plus Extra because I have so many others to play.
It's not that I don't want to play them — I'd love to enjoy Tchia — I just don't have time!
Well they hardly expect it to keep growing did they, between saturation, removing games and adding trash bin games its hardly surprising, this service already needs a re invention, that's a bad sign
And then the reason also this first half of 2023 has so many new great games coming, there's just no time to play everything
I won’t be renewing my PS+ or GamePass after they run out. To many good games coming out across all 3 consoles i want to play and i will just buy them Digitally like I’ve been doing since early 360 years. Now i think the services have a place for certain gamers, and we on these forums aren’t really the main target. As more and more games come out and hit the services i think certain gamers can and will benefit for being subscribed. But once i buy Diablo 4 and others this June i really won’t need PS+ or GP to look for rare games i didn’t know i needed to try. I will be hardcore grinding 2 characters in Diablo 4 and looking for a fighting stick for SF6 and might give FF16 a try, even tho FF is not really my thing normally.
Yeah, for me PS Plus Extra is nice a bonus. If I'm going to subscribe to PS Plus for the online gaming, which I will sometimes do for sports titles like FIFA, until I get bored of them, then it's just about £30 to make up the difference and get a great catalogue of games for a year.
I've been wondering whether to bother re-subbing though, as my online gaming has dwindled, and I've played a fair few Plus Extra titles. So £83 for an unknown quantity of games I might now be interested in seems more of a waste, when I might just end up buying some lengthy RPGs that may end up seeing me through the year anyway.
Got a feeling I'll be doing what most are doing, letting subs run out, and then restarting down the line if there's some good value for games I want to play short term.
Having Plus Extra hasn't really changed my gaming habits, and I'll happily just buy games I want, because that's kind of what suits gaming best.
Plus Extra is probably the best of options though, it's been a great way to catch up on some absolutely killer titles, so I'm glad they went ahead with it! And I might still keep it anyway 😆
As for Netflix, that is absolutely trash these days, why anyone stays subbed is beyond me lol. I've had a month in maybe the last year and a half. They have clearly given up on making good shows, and are holding on by a thread and aiming at the dumb*** market with dating/holiday/game shows, it seems. The Last Kingdom film might be the last thing I sub to that for, and I can't justify getting it for just one film 😬
Oh happy days oh happy days!
Glad we're avoiding this doom to the quality of games.
@get2sammyb
I'm on my 6th game beaten this year and most of them aren't in a sub, and the ones that were, I just rather buy them for cheap and keep them "forever".
I let Wo Long sit because I honestly didn't feel like playing it. Nioh and Nioh 2 felt better and those were last gen games.
And this is precisely why Sony didn't go full mode with this vertical of the business. They have an offer, and i am glad it evolved and adds more value, yet not a huge risk for the company either.
@Shepherd_Tallon exactly what people hailing subscription gaming as the future fail to see : movies and VG are a vastly different entertainment mediums, it only takes 2 hrs to watch a movie, but it takes hundreds of hrs before you are completely done with a game, even if its a short game like REmake 3 since i've played that game multiple times and i'm still trying to platinum it, so in short i like to own my games not rent them and that's why games ownership it's not going anywhere despite what microsoft and their "fans" claim.
Friction with payoff...all you can eat bargain buffet will never be as satisfying as choice cuts of prime fillet steak.
@get2sammyb That's the other side of it too - Who has the flippin time?
@get2sammyb exactly, what's the point of having hundreds of games at your disposal if you only have a couple of hrs ( at best) to game every day.
I’ve caught up on a majority of games I want to play, so, when my sub ran out I went back to the most basic version.
IE GP is not the saviour ms were hoping for lmao
I paid for 5 years of Plus Premium upfront by stacking PS Now cards. At the discounted online price I got them, that was maybe 270 Euro? I'm all set until 2027 - so perhaps I'm part of the slowing growth?
But then again, PS Plus is the only entertainment service I've ever subbed to - and always upfront, turning automatic renewal off is always the first thing I do when I restarted membership in the past. No Netflix or the like either - that content is available for free if parrots are your pet of choice. Same for football, NFL, and especially Formula 1. Come to think of it, I don't even have a phone plan; I just mooch my company's unlimited plan and they don't say anything because I'm a bit too irreplaceable to fire.
The endless growth model is unattainable. It is a road map to destruction for our species. Yet in individual instances, if used as the sole metric as to whether or not you continue a commitment to something unless forcing users into a greed driven predatory bottleneck, it will always slowly fail/stall (based on the endless growth fallacy).
In the gaming sector this predation is occurring and you also have a severe stagnation of creativity in games in favor of formulaic tropes that tone deaf greed driven decision makers continue to follow and in turn greatly narrow the variety on offer. Thus narrowing the potential of adding new gamers to the medium down to those that will either fall victim to the corny slot machine designs or are fine playing the exact same game over and over with a fresh coat of paint.
Take risks, look at what worked in the heydays of gaming, cater to your Fandom.
Wait, are you telling me that Jim Ryan was again right about something else? It's almost like he's been involved with a company that has sustained success for 20+ years by sticking to what made them successful.
Maybe we should stop listening to the other guy just because he wears gaming shirts and Twitter likes him, because if you really pay attention to what he says, he has no idea what the heck he's talking about.
The problem with these models:
1) These plans benefits the consumer most to subscribe the day a major title launches, and unsubscribe within that same billing period, to play the full game and maybe another;
2) These plans benefit the company most when consumers subscribe when buying the machine and let their account be charged indefinitely whether they use the machine or not.
Both cannot be true.
@FenIsMightier I don't know if this interferes much with consumers' habits for gamers. Sony just broke every record in Playstation history for March in console sales this past month.
There's a dark side for the industry with the traditional model too, though, and much as people celebrate the old model, they're missing a factor in it they don't like, as well. Games are continuously getting more expensive, meanwhile there's ever more games being made overall. In the traditional model where each purchase is a chunk of money, people are selective with what they buy. That's what's reinforcing the trend in the industry that most games are samey cookie cutter games, innovation stagnates, and it's the same few games with improved graphics every few years while the same stagnant franchises dominate more and more forever.
Maybe subscription is what is going to break that mold, maybe it's not, but as much as people like the old model, most also don't like the growing stagnancy of the industry, samey cookie cutter games, and the same 5 franchises being on the top 10 forever and ever and ever as any experimental new idea just gets priced out of the market, declared a failure and then back to the grind.
So if people don't want subscriptions to succeed, and also don't want the industry to stagnate into a dozen clone games that forever rule the sales charts and do nothing but slap new paint on it for the PS4 Pro Plus Super Ultra Mega in 30 years....how DO they want to allow new ideas to succeed? Because the traditional pricing model won't do that with the amount of studios trying to compete.
@FenIsMightier "3) There's still growth in subs. It's just slowed. " I think people are very much missing that part of it as well. It's not that subs are in decline, it's that the rate of increase is less steep than it was, while still increasing.
I won't do anything more than Essential. I don't buy games for the first few months as I have a good backlog. When GOW Ragnorak hit $20 on a sale, I'll pick up.
good , the decline in quality of PS & the fact that this scam of paying to use your own internet to play online is outdated and bs
been playing PC more these days
@FenIsMightier For me, Crunchyroll is sacred because I have my exercise bike parked in front of a TV. If I didn't have Crunchyroll to amuse me, I'd never actually exercise. Which I do every day, so Crunchyroll manages to get used everyday and validates the $8 spent. Lol
@nomither6 I know people get bent out of shape and think you need an ivy league education to operate a gaming PC, but I just can't resist my PC. Monster hardware aside, there's just something fun about operating a PC, to me.
@FenIsMightier Yeah, it really seems like the way it's evolved is that first the industry consolidated into megastudios and increasingly replicates an interactive version of bland hollywood blockbusters (or casinos, in no particular order), and then the indies kind of fell out of that again and just rebuilt the old gaming industry as it was as this (very misnamed imo) "indie" market. I think people write it off because marketing speaks too loudly, and indies have little of it, and because there was this period where "indie" really meant really low budget garage developer sort of games, which isn't really at all what it is today. They're the games that used to be $40-50 dollar games when that was "AAA" before it went all hollywood. More times than not, even made by the same people....
I've been subscribed to extra since November and the only game I've played a lot is the messenger.
I don't know, the idea is good in theory, but like Netflix you start wondering what you are paying for if you're not even using it.
At least if I buy a game and don't play it (which is silly I know but I still do it) I'm not paying monthly to keep not playing it, and it certainly doesn't get 'cycled out'.
@FenIsMightier Oh, no. Don't get me wrong, I took no offense by what you said. I'm more just reaffirming your point that we're all different, and entertainment isn't really just this blanket thing we all consume the same way. For me, anime is the only way to motivate my otherwise lazy self to exercise. Which is why even in tough economic times I wouldn't view it as a discretional expense.
@SplooshDmg id say its all the freedom and things u can do! theres no limits to anything! its the real all-in-one machine. not to mention PC exclusives, hell, u can even play internet games on it or games from the windows store, or emulators, etc!
that ''pc master race'' attitude is hard to resist, but im trying! lol! i feel bad for the people that think PC is hard or something, i thought the same thing and i dont consider myself a brainiac at all. i presume its a really good time to play PC nowadays.
oh, and also - FREEEE ONLINE
I think gamepass will ultimately have to change due to the fact that there’s very little incentive for the developers to put out anything but “good enough” games because they’re getting paid the same regardless. The lack of quality will lead to consumer apathy. I struggle to name one microsoft exclusive gamepass day one game that I’d consider to be a system-seller.
The Sony model makes a little more sense due to the fact that games really aren’t added to the service until their peak selling days are long gone. The quality is still there. The problem with that is that I’ve played most of the games I’d be interested in by the time they hit the service.
I don’t think subscription services are going anywhere, but I’d guess they’ll look very different in 5 years.
@nomither6 Yeah, I mean, ReShade exists. It's hard to stress how much I love ReShade. My PC was expensive, but I truly love using it.
I've always gamed on PC. My dad was a total PC enthusiast, so we always had nice ones when I was growing up, so I gamed a lot on them and just got to know Windows well. I get that people struggle to use them, but I love tinkering with a computer. I really don't have a lot of issues with my machine, but if an issue arises I don't know how to fix, I just see that as an opportunity to learn something.
Free cloud saves on Steam too! I sincerely loathe that I have to pay Sony and Nintendo for cloud saves. Absolutely burns my arse to no end.
@SplooshDmg oh yeah forgot to mention mods; didnt know what reShade was so had to look it up, and wow, u learn something new everyday with PC , see? lol. I agree that tinkering with PC is so interesting; the customization is insane and i love the multi-tasking. i always play my games windowed, and having other games,apps,websites, all running on one screen will never not be amazing. but i have to admit, if it wasnt for controller support i would be lost, i cant learn keyboard & mouse for the life of me, and i honestly prefer controller way more. i didnt grow up with PC.
''Free cloud saves on Steam too! I sincerely loathe that I have to pay Sony and Nintendo for cloud saves. Absolutely burns my arse to no end.''
@nomither6 Oh, God. ReShade is life changing. It's incredible. I actually have my PC on a 43" TV, so I use Steam Big Picture mode a lot. It's really cool. You can basically use Steam just a console. Link your controller up and navigate the Steam interface just like you would a console OS. You might try Big Picture Mode out and see how you like it (if you haven't already). You can set it to be windowed in the Steam settings. It doesn't really change anything, but I think it adds a really fun element to PC, and I think it's a genuinely better UI than regular ole Steam.
Any rate, happy gaming mate. I have grass that isn't going to mow itself!
@KundaliniRising333 You hit the nail right on the head.
Growth as a measure of success is deeply flawed. When you reach the maximum amount of people that will pay for your service or buy your products, there is no way to increase that number. Expecting infinite growth is the pressure shareholders place on a company, but it does not reflect the reality of running a business. Making business decisions based on that metric is pretty dumb.
But hey, that’s capitalism for ya. 🤷♂️
Only have the base level of PS+ to get the discounts. I will claim, but don’t usually care about the monthly games, because I’ve already bought them. The upper tiers offer nothing for me. I would rather just own the games outright and play what I want, when I want, and not have my gaming habits dictated by what the company decides to offer at a particular time. And yeah, spare reading me the riot act for just how much I own my digital purchases.
Gamepass isn't much better. I've looked at it before for PC. Almost all the same games as ps plus extra except for some day1 ms games. Which generally just means more and more Halo and Forza.
Just wait for them to inflate the price Netflix style.
As Jim Ryan said, gaming isn't the same as linear entertainment like TV/movie subs.
@Balosi to your point and how it's different from Netflix is not a lot of us have the privilege of being able to completely beat more than one game in a month. With Netflix you can set it on a show and casually watch while doing other things and still get value. Not really possible to beat say Doom Eternal while also sending work emails and making lunch.
@Konks Netflix/TV is far more passive than games of course, but while sending work emails? Cheaper to just use a radio for background noise.
PS plus has been well worth it for me, very happy with the service and the improvements made
Subscriptions will always have a plateau - you'll not convince everyone to subscribe as gamers will have different reasons to subscribe (or not).
I don't see the point in Subscribing to anything more than PS+ Essential tier to be able to play ALL the content in the Games I buy - I have to Sub to play online content.I don't play the PS3 and older games I still have and not interested in playing the ones I missed. As for PS4/5 era games, I have bought all the games I wanted and would likely end up buying the games that 'eventually' come to PS+ so it has little/no appeal. Game Pass on the other hand gives me access to games I want to play the day they release so I don't need to pay $70 to try a game, don't need to 'wait' until it comes to a service to get my 'moneys' worth' from that service etc.
PS+ (at least tiers above Essential) doesn't suit me so I won't subscribe - and I can't be the ONLY one that it doesn't really suit so there is a limit to a service and you won't ever attain 100% of the potential - which for Playstation is really limited to the number of Playstation users
As with all things, it comes down to greed eventually. Before streaming was a thing, big companies were complaining about downloading and pirating movies/music/games. With the advent of Netflix and Spotify a lot of that stopped. And then, guess what, EVERYONE wanted you to sub to EVERYTHING! So now we have Apple TV+, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, HBO, Now TV etc etc. To the point where you would be spending hundreds of £ per month if you wanted it all. Then add in PS Plus, Gamepass, EA Access, Ubisoft+ or whatever game subs there are. And not to mention every single app on your phone nowadays is a sub service. Even if it's a product that really doesn't warrant a sub service. In fact, those are the most annoying ones, the apps. Go through the whole setting account up rigmarole and at the end - "choose your plan". F off!!!!! I miss the days when I could buy a useful app for £3.99 or whatever and have it forever. Now I even need to subscribe to my goddamn printer!!!
The good thing is, as this article suggests, these practices always consume themselves in the end.
I definitely don't plan on renewing/keeping my PS Plus premium when it expires in April 2027.
@gingerfrog not denying that as a lot of people probably had the money sitting about for a PS5 considering how hard it was at first to get one. I live in the UK where a lot of goods have increased between 40-75%.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...