Ex-PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has been keeping busy in his newly embarked retirement and is sharing his thoughts on subscription services. While the idea of a gaming subscription service isn’t anything new, it’s only truly begun to come into its own in recent years. Things have reached a point that some publishers are now making claims based on player engagement rather than raw sales numbers, which can tell a drastically different story. Take, for instance, Microsoft’s recent claim of millions of players for DOOM: The Dark Ages, when more than a few pointed to SteamDB, which still shows only a fraction of that number since its launch. Yoshida, however, points out that there can be an even darker side to worry about when it comes to the effects of gaming subscription services on the industry as a whole.
“If the only way for people to play games is through subscriptions that’s really dangerous, because what [type] of games can be created will be dictated by the owner of the subscription services,”
Shuhei Yoshida, Former PlayStation CEO
Yoshida expanded upon this while speaking with Game Developer, saying that it becomes risky for the industry because publishers will focus on AAA games instead of indie or smaller developers’ games. He also believes that Microsoft may’ve bitten off more than it can chew with its “Day One” promise of releasing games on its Game Pass service, since it can disincentivize consumers from buying new releases. He feels that Sony’s subscription model makes more sense since there’s time after a game is released before it becomes available on its PlayStation Now service, thus allowing for sales. In addition, this model enables those who waited for titles to be discounted to possibly instead subscribe to play the titles they were waiting for.
Yoshida is not one-sided when it comes to the age-old Sony vs Microsoft and compliments the latter for its backward compatibility support. He also gives praise to Nintendo for its continued forward thinking in console designs aimed at multiplayer support, as seen with the Switch controllers. Yoshida also recently gave praise to Sony for its ongoing PC releases, claiming it was akin to printing money.