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.
Discussion (16 replies)
Join Discussion →I mean that's a big no shit right there. New studios will never get the budget to make big titles and big studios will either keep demanding what they want without the sub services until they slip.
I'm honestly not too worried for the gaming industry.
The only thing at risk, really, are those huge AAA money pits. And for the most part, I'm fine with that.
The nice thing about gaming is that it's an industry where if you have some passion, and a good idea, and a good work ethic, and a bit of good luck - you can make something, and it could go big. I could rattle off a dozen small indie hits right now, and while not all of them are to my taste - a surprising number are. My number 1 favorite title (Factorio) is from a no-name outfit out of Eastern Europe that started out with 3 guys, and I think they might be up to ... 7 guys now?
There are tools out there to make games, heck, you don't even need to know how to code anymore. A bit of vibe coding and some shopping on an asset storefront and you could put together something playable in short order. Now, whether that's a good game or not depends entirely upon ~your~ vision and your ability to implement it.
Now, I do realize, for every small indie hit, there are hundreds of flops - but that's only in a commercial sense. Those folks making those products are writing, and in many cases releasing final products (there the endless "early release" and perpetual Kickstarter stuff, I'm excluding that here). And that is meaningful in it's own way, even if I completely discount the commercial side. It may not put bread on the table, but it's another good line item in a resume, and the more experience you have, the better starting point and further reach you have for the next project.
You don't need a multi-million dollar budget to make a good game. But Grimlakin has a great point about studios that make big titles - the next one always needs to be bigger. And I just am not convinced that it really does. So yeah, the big studios may be in a large amount of trouble, but that's entirely self-inflicted, and probably good for the industry if it does go away.
I see it differently, I really hope it helps bring the cost of game development down, it's getting ridiculous. If only it went to the working people, the devs, the artists, the testers. But no, these guys get payed peanuts while marketing/management gets the big slice of the cake.
Yeah, like streaming killed the movie business... No wait...
Well to be fair it was already in more of an undead state before. Streaming was just the beheading or stake in the heart.
I have PC Game pass (again), and yes I could see where it may hurt the industry somewhat, but not enough for them to worry IMO.
Bloated budgets, unionization, and the rush to push game prices into triple digits while still pushing the GaaS model is what is killing the industry.
I'll agree to all of that OTHER than unionization. If you work for EA, or Microsoft/Activision, or other very large publisher especially with how they historically treat developers you NEED a union to represent your group as a unified front. Sure it's prone to abuse, but is it better than the abuse you already are having as a dev?
Studios stopped hiring QA people after the unionization push happened, or they contract it out to slave farms overseas. Yes, that really helped out QA people and did wonders for the state AAA games are released in nowadays.
Is that the fault of Unions or greedy corporate overlords?
Both are greedy, make no mistake.
There is zero threat to the gaming industry. There is always a posibility of screwing up multimillion dollar investments in making boring repetitive games sure.
Gaming industry will probably get even bigger and more accesible to creators with AI, if anything the problem that will get even worse is identifying the gems. Yes it will get even bigger in my opinion, and yes it will be tons of crap, like always really.
AI might usher other problems, it might make giants produce repetitive 'safe investment' games even faster, and even more cookie cutter sure, but in turn it will allow more new studios of any size express their new ideas faster and better.
Theres is zero worries about the gaming industry. If anything it seems to keep growing.
I used to think, OMG monthly subscription games will destroy the industry, as some games made billions, well , it doesnt work that way, so with pay to win, and on and on its just different models inside a giant industry.
I think another E.T. moment is nearly impossible at this point given how big the industry literally is and how diverse it has become. We can all choose to vote with our wallets by not buying the things we don't like and that does have an impact but its also true that when something $$$ucessful that everybody and their dog wants in on the action then the industry is cursed for a bit with clones until the next big thing. As far as the impact of subscription services goes, well, I think its very suspect because we don't really know all the details various publishers or studios are getting and I expect pros and cons for each. I don't use any services, for right now, but that could change down the road but currently I still prefer to "own" a game instead of a time-limited access window. I know there's a whole other angle when it comes to "owning" games but I think we're all mostly on the same page when it comes to the general definition.
I'm not worried about the overall profitability of the industry. It could be the biggest it's ever been with the most revenue ever recorded. But if most of the product are remasters of past glory and trend chasing live services targeting whales, then I consider that very much destroyed.
High quality AAA single player games are rarer and rarer. Most such franchises are on ice, or put out games not worthy of the names.
The state of the industry is well defined by the fact, that at this point there is literally only one game I'm looking forward to. And even that is more cautious optimism than full on enthusiasm.
I think anyone who looks at the gaming industry now and thinks its all fine because of the overall revenue is as far detached from reality on the ground as the bankers and investors and non-gamer executives driving these negative trends.
Yeah, its getting bad out there. At least there are some indies and AA that still interest me. Some show up out of no where but most of the big name stuff I'm wary of. Though a lot of AA games in the $30-60 area of quality are all about milking their niche customers too. I stopped counting last year the number of games I gave a chance to even at $20 that I should have waited on for bundle deals. Either because quality was sub par or just the price was too much given my enjoyment.
I'd cry about flavor of the month $1-10 games but even if they kinda suck I usually get 10-20 hours out of them playing with friends.