The data suggests some gamers are partially treating the service to trial or even rent a game they might be interested in, before unsubscribing.
This is me. I often subscribe when there’s a discount, go through some games I’m not interested in buying but want to play anyways. Xbox game pass specifically has a lot of great indies that can be finished relatively quickly.
I subscribed earlier this year for a month, might resubscribe for a month again later this year.
Same here. Game pass is a pretty good deal even at full price for playing AAA single player games that you won’t touch after a single play through. Plus, there’s a lot of games that I wouldn’t have given a shot if I didn’t happen to have Game Pass at the time.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 31 May 02:05
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Same here. I use GamePass and PS Plus to play games I’m interested in but not enough to buy right out the gate. I enjoy finding games that I’ve never heard of and enjoy. If I like it enough, I’ll buy it.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world
on 29 May 16:11
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I think enough people have been exposed to enough subscription services that customers have started taking inventory of what they’re paying per month that they didn’t used to do, which means often signing up for a month and then quitting. I’m simultaneously surprised and not surprised that the access to online multiplayer only accounts for about 30% of the reason people subscribe to these things, but then those same customers doing that same accounting of their personal finances have probably done the math to realize that, long term, it’s cheaper to just play games online on PC, which is leading to consoles performing the way they’re performing lately.
long term, it’s cheaper to just play games online on PC
The companies are clearly coming to terms with this, as well. I’ll be avoiding Sony games on PC for the foreseeable future - after the Helldivers debacle, it’s clear that Sony is looking for ways to monetize PC players.
newthrowaway20@lemmy.world
on 29 May 16:27
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Churn is inevitable with any subscription service.
The trick is creating just enough value and exclusive content/services that you feel like you’re gonna miss out if you leave. But not too much.
I haven’t seen any incentive to stay with any specific game subscription service via exclusive content or services. But I do see plenty of attempts to lock people into services with shitty tactics. Like forcing save data to the cloud. Good luck moving that saved file to your own personal copy of the game. Or multiple tiered service options with features/games locked behind more expensive options.
It’s all manipulative and anti consumer.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 29 May 16:27
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It’s still crazy to me that this somehow became normal. I’m not paying rent for a fucking video game. Hell I’m not even paying in general, least of all for Ubisoft or some other Activision-Blizzard-EA shlock.
Things are getting back to normal in a way. People rented games for 8/16-bit consoles from video rental stores commonly. These days it’s common for people playing on consoles to buy, play through and sell games because there are no such stores anymore.
I had GamePass for a few years and just canceled last month. I barely used it anymore except for Minecraft and Halo Infinite and don’t play those anymore. I might even own Minecraft and have forgotten.
But then I signed back up for Nintendo Online because my girlfriend and her son just got Switches and we play Animal Crossing together. But it’s not as much as GamePass so not that big of a deal.
But I’m sick of subscriptions for shit I don’t even use. Everything nowadays has to be a subscription for no reason. Nintendo doesn’t even provide anything of valuable for theirs since I can’t even talk over it. I’m just paying for what used to be free on their past consoles.
NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
on 29 May 17:49
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It grinds my gears that sony software locked the ability to backup saves locally on the PS5 making a PS plus subscription the only way to have a backup of save games. I don’t play multiplayer and don’t play the monthly free games either so I have to pay a premium for the rest of my life to get a basic functionality that was present in ps4 but got nerfed for some dubious reasons in ps5. The recent ps plus price hike was the last straw so I ditched my PS and got into PC gaming and loving it so far.
NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
on 29 May 17:51
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I subscribe to game pass ultimate.
It lets me game on my tv, instead of the Xbox, plus my ADD and a whole bunch of ever changing games is just glorious.
Plus they usually run a sale when they take it off gamepass so you can get it cheap if you like it.
I bought 3 years of Gamepass when they had that $1 upgrade thing and right before they increased the local pricing. Will probably be the only and final subscription I have when it’s over in a couple of years
I have the Nintendo one, originally for animal crossing and now it’s more because my 2 year old likes Super Mario 64 and I do not want to set her up on a PC to emulate it quite yet. Switch is a lot easier on her tiny baby hands, plus handhelds are more intuitive.
My stepdad has Xboxs thing, which works for him anyway. Given he’s retired and has time but not a lot of money, it’s a better bang for his buck (plus he’s not exactly planning on living forever).
snowsuit2654@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 29 May 19:29
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I have gamepass and I’m happy with it. I tend to dabble in a lot of games instead of playing one game for a long time.
One new game costs $60 to purchase. For me personally there is little chance I will be playing it 4 months from now.
Alternatively I can pay for gamepass and play any of those games for $15 a month. The only situation where this ends up being a worse deal is if I only play one game for more than four months, which so far has not happened for me.
I realize that doesn’t make sense for everyone, though.
The issue for me is that most games I buy are way cheaper, (because of steam sales) and the games I enjoy are rarely on gamepass. So I’d be barely saving money and be playing worse games.
I subscribed to Game Pass for a year or so. It was a good value but it got to the point where there were just too many games and not enough time to play them. I kept subscribing for the $1 per month trick, but once that ended I canceled.
When Manor Lords came out in early access I found a good deal for a month of Game Pass, that just expired.
WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 29 May 19:53
nextcollapse
I personally am a pirate but xbox gamepass is a very popular way to play games in my cpuntry because people csn’t afford games anymore
Ps+ top tier. I always had ps+ since it’s what I have always used. I always used to renew at black Friday to get a year for about 33% less and once they did the plan change a few years ago I swooped in and brought up a bunch of cheap years since the price was going up. I have until spring next year before it’s finally over. Not sure if I will renew, not because it’s bad (which I don’t think it is at all) but because I barely have time to get anything out of it, sadly. There was some great moments where I stopped buying games and just enjoying the triple A ones they gave every month. Now I just don’t have time to play anything… maybe one day I’ll be free again.
drislands@lemmy.world
on 30 May 00:50
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Looks like I’m in the minority, but I subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online. My wife and I enjoy the extra Mario kart courses and I personally enjoy the N64 virtual console.
cottonmon@lemmy.world
on 30 May 02:21
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I subscribe to Gamepass, mostly because it’s only $2 a month in my region, so it’s really good value for me. At 15$ I probably wouldn’t have pushed through with it.
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
on 30 May 02:33
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Gamepass because I don’t even own an Xbox. I pay $15/ month for wow so having game pass with a shitload of games for basically the same price is a no brainer
I subscribed to Game pass when it was just $1 for a while because it was just $1.
I subscribed to PS+ Premium for a year when I got my PS5 because it was cheaper than buying games unseen to see if I liked them.
I had Nintendo Online specifically because I got Rocket League on my Switch when my previous PC died and I needed my fix. This was before RL was F2P and thus you needed NO to play online.
I stopped with GamePass when it went to a regular price and it stopped being worth it for me since most of what’s on it does not interest me, or I already own it elsewhere.
I didn’t renew PS+ because they jacked the price up and I couldn’t afford it, even though I still feel the year is worth what you get out of it since it’s still cheaper than buying every individual game I might want to play, and a whole year is plenty of time for me to complete several games.
Ditched NO as soon as I got a new PC and could play Rocket League on my regular account.
I did the „convert 3 years of prepaid Xbox Gold into Game Pass Ultimate“ trick.
That way I paid 100€ (3x33€ for Gold+ 1€ to convert to GP) flat for three years of Game Pass, which is an incredible deal.
I don’t know what I will do when the prepaid time runs out. I’m enjoying the content, but before I was quite happy with heavily discounted games. I don’t need to play on day one.
I actually just cancelled my GamePass last night. I rarely use it, as I spend most of my time gaming on steam, and I own almost all the games I want to play.
I don’t pay for any video streaming services. I pay for gamepass because sometimes I want to try out something crazy I’ve never played before and it’s great for that.
Shardikprime@lemmy.world
on 31 May 02:08
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I love the game boy games on the switch so here I am
TheControlled@lemmy.world
on 31 May 17:07
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PS+ I want to play online, I like getting the free games, I need cloud storage for saves.
I’m also on PC and realize two of those three are free. I’m willing to pay on PS because the couch experience is so, so, so much better than PC could ever be, no matter how many times PC creeps screech at me that I’m wrong.
threaded - newest
This is me. I often subscribe when there’s a discount, go through some games I’m not interested in buying but want to play anyways. Xbox game pass specifically has a lot of great indies that can be finished relatively quickly.
I subscribed earlier this year for a month, might resubscribe for a month again later this year.
Same here. Game pass is a pretty good deal even at full price for playing AAA single player games that you won’t touch after a single play through. Plus, there’s a lot of games that I wouldn’t have given a shot if I didn’t happen to have Game Pass at the time.
Same here. I use GamePass and PS Plus to play games I’m interested in but not enough to buy right out the gate. I enjoy finding games that I’ve never heard of and enjoy. If I like it enough, I’ll buy it.
I think enough people have been exposed to enough subscription services that customers have started taking inventory of what they’re paying per month that they didn’t used to do, which means often signing up for a month and then quitting. I’m simultaneously surprised and not surprised that the access to online multiplayer only accounts for about 30% of the reason people subscribe to these things, but then those same customers doing that same accounting of their personal finances have probably done the math to realize that, long term, it’s cheaper to just play games online on PC, which is leading to consoles performing the way they’re performing lately.
The companies are clearly coming to terms with this, as well. I’ll be avoiding Sony games on PC for the foreseeable future - after the Helldivers debacle, it’s clear that Sony is looking for ways to monetize PC players.
Churn is inevitable with any subscription service.
The trick is creating just enough value and exclusive content/services that you feel like you’re gonna miss out if you leave. But not too much.
I haven’t seen any incentive to stay with any specific game subscription service via exclusive content or services. But I do see plenty of attempts to lock people into services with shitty tactics. Like forcing save data to the cloud. Good luck moving that saved file to your own personal copy of the game. Or multiple tiered service options with features/games locked behind more expensive options.
It’s all manipulative and anti consumer.
It’s still crazy to me that this somehow became normal. I’m not paying rent for a fucking video game. Hell I’m not even paying in general, least of all for Ubisoft or some other Activision-Blizzard-EA shlock.
Things are getting back to normal in a way. People rented games for 8/16-bit consoles from video rental stores commonly. These days it’s common for people playing on consoles to buy, play through and sell games because there are no such stores anymore.
I had GamePass for a few years and just canceled last month. I barely used it anymore except for Minecraft and Halo Infinite and don’t play those anymore. I might even own Minecraft and have forgotten.
But then I signed back up for Nintendo Online because my girlfriend and her son just got Switches and we play Animal Crossing together. But it’s not as much as GamePass so not that big of a deal.
But I’m sick of subscriptions for shit I don’t even use. Everything nowadays has to be a subscription for no reason. Nintendo doesn’t even provide anything of valuable for theirs since I can’t even talk over it. I’m just paying for what used to be free on their past consoles.
They took Minecraft off gamepass
You have to pay for PS plus if you want to play with people online.
Pretty sure it’s required for all three.
It grinds my gears that sony software locked the ability to backup saves locally on the PS5 making a PS plus subscription the only way to have a backup of save games. I don’t play multiplayer and don’t play the monthly free games either so I have to pay a premium for the rest of my life to get a basic functionality that was present in ps4 but got nerfed for some dubious reasons in ps5. The recent ps plus price hike was the last straw so I ditched my PS and got into PC gaming and loving it so far.
I subscribe to game pass ultimate.
It lets me game on my tv, instead of the Xbox, plus my ADD and a whole bunch of ever changing games is just glorious.
Plus they usually run a sale when they take it off gamepass so you can get it cheap if you like it.
It’s sega channel revamped
I bought 3 years of Gamepass when they had that $1 upgrade thing and right before they increased the local pricing. Will probably be the only and final subscription I have when it’s over in a couple of years
I have the Nintendo one, originally for animal crossing and now it’s more because my 2 year old likes Super Mario 64 and I do not want to set her up on a PC to emulate it quite yet. Switch is a lot easier on her tiny baby hands, plus handhelds are more intuitive.
My stepdad has Xboxs thing, which works for him anyway. Given he’s retired and has time but not a lot of money, it’s a better bang for his buck (plus he’s not exactly planning on living forever).
I have gamepass and I’m happy with it. I tend to dabble in a lot of games instead of playing one game for a long time.
One new game costs $60 to purchase. For me personally there is little chance I will be playing it 4 months from now.
Alternatively I can pay for gamepass and play any of those games for $15 a month. The only situation where this ends up being a worse deal is if I only play one game for more than four months, which so far has not happened for me.
I realize that doesn’t make sense for everyone, though.
The issue for me is that most games I buy are way cheaper, (because of steam sales) and the games I enjoy are rarely on gamepass. So I’d be barely saving money and be playing worse games.
Also its not available on Linux so there’s that
I subscribed to Game Pass for a year or so. It was a good value but it got to the point where there were just too many games and not enough time to play them. I kept subscribing for the $1 per month trick, but once that ended I canceled.
When Manor Lords came out in early access I found a good deal for a month of Game Pass, that just expired.
I personally am a pirate but xbox gamepass is a very popular way to play games in my cpuntry because people csn’t afford games anymore
Me. I work in video games, and I have kids.
I have barely any subscriptions for anything anymore and once Gamepass expires (I did the £1 upgrade offer) I will not renew.
I just chop and change to whatever I want for the month but overall I don’t really use many paid services anymore.
Ps+ top tier. I always had ps+ since it’s what I have always used. I always used to renew at black Friday to get a year for about 33% less and once they did the plan change a few years ago I swooped in and brought up a bunch of cheap years since the price was going up. I have until spring next year before it’s finally over. Not sure if I will renew, not because it’s bad (which I don’t think it is at all) but because I barely have time to get anything out of it, sadly. There was some great moments where I stopped buying games and just enjoying the triple A ones they gave every month. Now I just don’t have time to play anything… maybe one day I’ll be free again.
Looks like I’m in the minority, but I subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online. My wife and I enjoy the extra Mario kart courses and I personally enjoy the N64 virtual console.
I subscribe to Gamepass, mostly because it’s only $2 a month in my region, so it’s really good value for me. At 15$ I probably wouldn’t have pushed through with it.
Gamepass because I don’t even own an Xbox. I pay $15/ month for wow so having game pass with a shitload of games for basically the same price is a no brainer
I subscribed to Game pass when it was just $1 for a while because it was just $1.
I subscribed to PS+ Premium for a year when I got my PS5 because it was cheaper than buying games unseen to see if I liked them.
I had Nintendo Online specifically because I got Rocket League on my Switch when my previous PC died and I needed my fix. This was before RL was F2P and thus you needed NO to play online.
I stopped with GamePass when it went to a regular price and it stopped being worth it for me since most of what’s on it does not interest me, or I already own it elsewhere.
I didn’t renew PS+ because they jacked the price up and I couldn’t afford it, even though I still feel the year is worth what you get out of it since it’s still cheaper than buying every individual game I might want to play, and a whole year is plenty of time for me to complete several games.
Ditched NO as soon as I got a new PC and could play Rocket League on my regular account.
I did the „convert 3 years of prepaid Xbox Gold into Game Pass Ultimate“ trick. That way I paid 100€ (3x33€ for Gold+ 1€ to convert to GP) flat for three years of Game Pass, which is an incredible deal.
I don’t know what I will do when the prepaid time runs out. I’m enjoying the content, but before I was quite happy with heavily discounted games. I don’t need to play on day one.
Xbox gamepass: for my kids, but they’re not really using it, so I may cancel it for good.
Ps plus: for me, I prefer PlayStation over Xbox and I love all the classic PlayStation games on it.
NSO: cloud saves, that’s pretty much it, but I just cancelled it today because I just don’t use it and neither do the kids.
I actually just cancelled my GamePass last night. I rarely use it, as I spend most of my time gaming on steam, and I own almost all the games I want to play.
I don’t pay for any video streaming services. I pay for gamepass because sometimes I want to try out something crazy I’ve never played before and it’s great for that.
I love the game boy games on the switch so here I am
PS+ I want to play online, I like getting the free games, I need cloud storage for saves.
I’m also on PC and realize two of those three are free. I’m willing to pay on PS because the couch experience is so, so, so much better than PC could ever be, no matter how many times PC creeps screech at me that I’m wrong.