Anyone who started their life as a gamer during the current generation, or the last, could take for granted the presence of the many online subscriptions, which now inevitably surround this market. PlayStation Plus, Xbox Live Gold e Nintendo Switch Online to be able to connect to servers and play with friends or people from all over the world on consoles, but there are other services related to video games, which offer various advantages or free content over the weeks.
All of this is generally supported by gods monthly costs by users, who were not even imaginable at the dawn of this market, where the only option was to buy the game and play it. Over the last 20 years, however, this concept has changed radically, according to some players in the positive and for others in the negative. We are here to retrace the history that sees online subscriptions arise and establish themselves on all the main existing gaming platforms.
From Xbox Live to the spread of online subscriptions
The story in question is dated 2002, year in which Microsoft products decided to become a pioneer for this new landscape. In fact, the Redmond house wanted to leave out the data that only a small part of the population connected to the internet saw, and it staked everything on the latter. Thus was born Xbox Live for the first Xbox, an online subscription necessary for users who wanted to connect to the network and take advantage of the console infrastructures. Although initially the thing did not go through, gradually the subscribers increased, as well as the owners of an internet line. When Xbox 360 arrived in 2005, an impressive 4 million users were Xbox Live subscribers. Taking a step back from this event, however, we are faced with another type of online subscription with a videogame background, which was making headlines as regards the PC market. In 2004 World of Warcraft made its official debut, managing to gain a lot of notoriety and audience, which made it an extremely active game to this day. In the mid-zero years this concept began to take root in a good slice of gamers, who were satisfied by the policies undertaken by Microsoft for the upcoming Xbox 360.
Once the rival of the Redmond house arrived in 2010, Sony, he decided to enter this world with extreme caution. While on PC theHumble Bundle, on PlayStation 3 came the PlayStation Plus, a service that allowed you to receive some benefits on the PS Store of the time, and free titles on a monthly basis. However, the online remained free for all users, and this policy was therefore able to take root only for less casual gamers, who decided to take Sony's initiative to expand their library. With the arrival of the current generation, the two houses each drew from the ideas of the other. PlayStation stated that in order to use the infrastructures on PS4, users would have to necessarily have the PlayStation Plus, which would however continue to guarantee discounts and free titles for subscribers. Microsoft instead announced the Games With Gold, an improvement for the Xbox Live offer that also saw in this case free games on a monthly basis for users who signed up for a subscription, so that the two houses equalized the offers.
The evolution of online subscriptions
As we all know Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus are still in place and fully active, but several other online subscriptions have appeared over the past 10 years. Tim Games e NVidia Shield have tried to bring gaming to TV, Discord Nitro supported the calling software with attractive promotions and in the meantime Apple Arcade attempted to evolve the mobile market, with Uplay + e Origin Access who have exploited the large libraries of the software houses that own them.
Some of these services are highly successful and others less so, but consumer luck is nowadays an impressive variety of solutions on the market. Obviously each requires a monthly cost, which, although it is low taken individually, can become astronomical if added to many others. Each player can fall in love with a single online subscription, try them all in rotation to take advantage of the libraries, or simply stick to the old canons and not consider these options.
The transformation in the Pass
Over the last few years we have been able to witness the birth of the passport, services created with the aim of expanding the concept of online subscriptions. A single word contains a concept that has now become a foundation of today's market, and even the commercial model of entire software houses. If we want to give a definition, the Passes are subscriptions that include an initial expense that does not provide a simple content, but a great many. The most famous, which goes beyond support for a single title and is proposed in broader terms, is undoubtedly theXbox Game Pass. With a formula inspired by the older but similar PlayStation Now, the Xbox service guarantees users a huge library of games. The entry price is really low for both of them and it is a monthly fee that does not even cover the cost of a single triple A title. The Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now are ultimately online subscriptions like any other, but anyone who interfaces with it immediately receives an avalanche of content, which is also updated on a monthly basis.
A similar argument occurs for the Pass Battle and for Season Passes, two rather particular models of videogame economization. In the first case we find a series of contents that can all be purchased through a single transaction, which generally stands at around 10 euros, but often has a free version with less content. New i-game items are redeemed shortly after purchase, but by continuing to spend time on the title in question new rewards are then given to the user. In this case the player will not have to carry out new microtransactions but will continue to see the fruits of the initial one simply by playing, until the pass has expired and a new one will appear. This formula was patented and made famous by the Fortnite phenomenon, and then expanded to other battle royale such as Apex Legends, but it managed to escape from the genre in question by being presented also in diametrically opposed games such as Gears 5. Season Passes, on the other hand, see a series of paid content being included in a single purchase, as if it were a bundle - however, these are also released later and are already available for those who own the aforementioned Pass. In addition, the initial purchase manages to discount the final price and usually guarantees additional benefits for an entire season, until its expiration.
The user wins
As in any market, the extreme variety of products and competition between companies undoubtedly favors customers. Nowadays, anyone who interfaces with the world of video games faces a series of infinite possibilities, especially if we consider the past years. You can always customize your purchasing approach by choosing how to introduce yourself to the excessive experience. Furthermore, the risk of market saturation due to the quantity of online subscriptions present is always around the corner, as companies are well aware. By lending your ear, you will always hear about the new discount for that subscription or that other, of that promotion and of thatXbox Game Pass Ultimate, which takes all the services from Xbox and packs them into a single package at an affordable price. Such fierce competition then goes to improve the quality of the services offered, as sellers want to attract customers to their side, also reducing prices. Once we get to this point, what does the future hold for us?
