Paid subs to Play Games becomes Reality

[garyopa]

Big Fish Sells Subscriptions to Its Games on the iPad

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Apple Inc. is letting a video-game company offer its titles by subscription on the iPad, expanding the role of a feature typically used by magazine and newspaper publishers.

After the Online Pass and content removed for DLC many people warned that it wouldn't be long before a gaming company decided to charge a monthly subscription to play a game, most (including me) suspected the culprit would be EA, Sony, UBI or Warners however the first company to allow this is Apple and the first publisher to do this is Big Fish Games, for $4.99 a month rising to $6.99 a month early next year gamers will be able to play their games whenever they are connected to the internet (yes, even single player)!



When Apple introduced its subscription feature earlier this year, Paul Thelen, the founder of Big Fish, saw it as an opportunity to offer an "all-you-can-eat" service. That lets players jump in and out of different games without having to make a bunch of downloads. While game-subscription services have a mixed record of success, the popularity of the iPad, along with the easy payment method provided by Apple's App Store, will make the offering attractive, Thelen said.

"This is the first time that the technology has matched the business model," he said.

The setup is similar to Netflix Inc. (NFLX)'s streaming application for the iPad. Subscribers can get unlimited access to games such as "Mystery Case Files" and the "Mahjong Towers" series from inside the Big Fish app.

Games played through the subscription service, which are streamed to a user's iPad from Big Fish's data centers, will initially require Wi-Fi access to play.


Oh, and you never own anything since the game are streamed to your i-device (Think Onlive over wifi) :(

NEWS SOURCE: Big Fish Games Deal With Apple (via) BloomBerg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-22/apple-lets-big-fish-games-offer-ipad-subscription-a-first-for-video-games.html)
Our thanks to 'billysastard' for writing up this news story to inform our many Maxconsole readers!

[Moses015]

And so dies gaming. Let's all pray to whatever deitie(s) we choose that this does not catch on. God I wish we could go back to when gaming was a niche market and not mainstream.

[JonathanD]

And so dies gaming. Let's all pray to whatever deitie(s) we choose that this does not catch on. God I wish we could go back to when gaming was a niche market and not mainstream.

You and me both... it could be me and my rose tinted glasses but it seemed like games had more variety and dare I say depth back then?

I suspect something like this will catch on IF they make it so cheap that people hardly think about it... Something like 2-5$ a month. Anymore and its going to have to deliver big time content like WoW.

[billysastard]

You and me both... it could be me and my rose tinted glasses but it seemed like games had more variety and dare I say depth back then?



add me to that list, they certainly had more content back in the day because you got it with the game, not ripped out to sell back to you later.


I suspect something like this will catch on IF they make it so cheap that people hardly think about it... Something like 2-5$ a month. Anymore and its going to have to deliver big time content like WoW.

i cant see why it would catch on at any price, why would anyone pay to play games on their mobile devices only to be forced to play them at home or on free wifi spots, surely that defeats the whole point of playing on a mobile device?

[JonathanD]

i cant see why it would catch on at any price, why would anyone pay to play games on their mobile devices only to be forced to play them at home or on free wifi spots, surely that defeats the whole point of playing on a mobile device?

Maybe I misunderstood something, I was under the impression that you could subscribe to this service and play games for that month (maybe some sort of monthly activation required?) and play the games as you wanted, but if you have to be connected the whole time then that makes this thing a LOT less attractive for the reasons you mention.

Online constant DRM is a pain in the arse for paying customers, at least the pirates don't have to deal with it.

The only reason I say it could catch on if its cheap enough is that its on the iPad, people who tend to buy those already are not the most price oriented people considering you can get close to the same specs for cheaper by simply going with a different pad company and using Android. Edit: And you get flash too from what I hear.

On a more opinion based note, about the only thing I would use a pad for is ebooks and at the point I might as well just get an ebook reader for way cheaper. Maybe in the future I could think of more uses, like a super fancy remote for my TV or something but I also imagine that in the future Android OS based ebook readers will be powerful enough to pull that off and be much much cheaper then these things cost now.

[wewii]

This is going to fail so bad with true gamers. Obviously there is plenty of iTards out there that will pay for it.

[billysastard]

Maybe I misunderstood something, I was under the impression that you could subscribe to this service and play games for that month (maybe some sort of monthly activation required?) and play the games as you wanted, but if you have to be connected the whole time then that makes this thing a LOT less attractive for the reasons you mention.

Online constant DRM is a pain in the arse for paying customers, at least the pirates don't have to deal with it.

The only reason I say it could catch on if its cheap enough is that its on the iPad, people who tend to buy those already are not the most price oriented people considering you can get close to the same specs for cheaper by simply going with a different pad company and using Android. Edit: And you get flash too from what I hear.

On a more opinion based note, about the only thing I would use a pad for is ebooks and at the point I might as well just get an ebook reader for way cheaper. Maybe in the future I could think of more uses, like a super fancy remote for my TV or something but I also imagine that in the future Android OS based ebook readers will be powerful enough to pull that off and be much much cheaper then these things cost now.

yes you subscribe and pay but the games are streamed so you need a always on net connection to play them (ie fixed wifi).

on your opinion check out the kindle fire, android based and sounds just like what you are after at a decent price too, many places are calling it an ipad killer.