I think the bigger gripe is less that there are subscriptions and more that they have gotten out of hand. In general the fragmentation of services as businesses try to get a piece of the pie. Monopolies aren’t great, but regulated monopolies have some benefits.
Some examples: Netflix used to have a wide variety of backlog material, they had a cheap subscription and replaced the video rental stores. As streaming and subscriptions became more of a thing businesses stopped allowing that content on Netflix because they wanted to do it themselves. Now you need 2-3 subscriptions for the same benefit that old Netflix had. I dropped all mine except for Amazon, I don’t want 3 streaming subscriptions.
Ubisoft and many other game companies decided to take their content off of Steam because they felt they weren’t getting enough from Valve. They split off and made their own equivalents, but the benefit of Steam is not having multiple launchers. I’d rather not play a game than have to have their brand specific launcher & account.
I don’t have a “right” to free content, but i still feel that the direction of the market has made the content and consumption of said content worse.
Well yes… that’s what I have done, the problem is the other 99% of the customer base who continues to be stupid. It’s like when people say “stop preordering games” before the release of the next AAA game, but then it has record preorder sales and hundreds of complaints about it being an unfinished piece of crap. The customer base at large is too stupid to stop feeding the problem.
I think the bigger gripe is less that there are subscriptions and more that they have gotten out of hand. In general the fragmentation of services as businesses try to get a piece of the pie. Monopolies aren’t great, but regulated monopolies have some benefits.
Some examples: Netflix used to have a wide variety of backlog material, they had a cheap subscription and replaced the video rental stores. As streaming and subscriptions became more of a thing businesses stopped allowing that content on Netflix because they wanted to do it themselves. Now you need 2-3 subscriptions for the same benefit that old Netflix had. I dropped all mine except for Amazon, I don’t want 3 streaming subscriptions.
Ubisoft and many other game companies decided to take their content off of Steam because they felt they weren’t getting enough from Valve. They split off and made their own equivalents, but the benefit of Steam is not having multiple launchers. I’d rather not play a game than have to have their brand specific launcher & account.
I don’t have a “right” to free content, but i still feel that the direction of the market has made the content and consumption of said content worse.
Stop giving them money then. Vote with your dollar its your only real vote anyway. Don’t like the way a service is treating you, cancel it.
Well yes… that’s what I have done, the problem is the other 99% of the customer base who continues to be stupid. It’s like when people say “stop preordering games” before the release of the next AAA game, but then it has record preorder sales and hundreds of complaints about it being an unfinished piece of crap. The customer base at large is too stupid to stop feeding the problem.
Still doesn’t mean you have to pay for a subscription that pisses you off. There are no victims here, just suckers.