Sony CEO Doesn’t Share Ubisoft’s Thoughts On Gaming Subscription Services

Multiple gaming topics in the world are currently getting people “hot and bothered” for right and wrong reasons. You might recall a certain game release that got people steamed because of potential AI usage in the worst ways and how that could lead to legal action. But the other big issue is that of gaming subscription services. Ubisoft recently noted that they felt that gaming subscription services were the “way of the future” and that gamers “should get comfortable not owning their own games.” But, many have spoken out against that, with Sony’s CEO being the latest of them.

In a quote we have below, the Sony CEO noted that due to the nature of gaming and how gamers like to play their titles, he doesn’t feel like a full-on gaming subscription service would work as the “overall model” for the gaming industry. He feels that game streaming, which we already have in multiple ways, is the better model, even citing the PlayStation Network as a good “hybrid” of these concepts, and that service has been around for years.

He brings up an interesting point about things. First off, many gamers do enjoy playing one title at a time. For example, right now, we’re in the midst of a gaming overload of titles across multiple platforms. While many will say they will get all these games and play them all at once, we know they can’t do that for various reasons. You know, such as money and having the time to play them all? More than likely, they’ll buy one title, play it to its end or until they want to move on, and THEN they’ll get the next game and do the same thing.

For some of these titles, the playtimes will be in the dozens of hours, so that could take a while to finish, depending on the gaming time they have to fill up. So having everyone rely on a singular gaming subscription model to get all their titles would be unfair at points because, based on how Ubisoft described it, the cycling of games might lead to someone wanting to play a game until the end but not being able to because of how it’s gone from the service before they can get there.

Plus, as the head of Larian Studios noted, it will make certain titles get “left in the dust” because it’s the heads of those subscription services that decide what games make the cut.