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  • Apple Gives The Green Light For a Monthly Subscription Model To Game Publishers
    by
    Akshay Masand
    Published on 11-22-2011 06:44 PM
    8 Comments Comments


    Apple has allowed videogame publishers to offer their titles to iPad users via a monthly subscription model. This revenue stream and purchasing option was previously only available to digital publications so the fact it has opened up to game publishers is quite big. Furthermore, the monthly subscription model has been one that has seen quite a bit of success in the videogame industry (think Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) so the fact it is now going to be available on the iPad raises expectations for gaming on the iPad as a whole.

    The folks over at Bloomberg recently reported the following:
    Big Fish Games, a Seattle-based game publisher, won approval from Apple to become the first to offer users access to dozens of titles for $6.99 a month. Until now, games have only been available one at a time, requiring users to download individual applications.
    What this does is allow a user who buys a Big Fish Games subscription to play an unlimited number of games that the publisher makes available through a dedicated app. This whole idea does come with a caveat though: Games will be streamed to users’ iPads from the company’s data centers. This requires the user to have Wi-Fi access to play (which I am sure will be worked around with a jailbreak tweak for those of you worried about this).

    Similar to Apple’s stake in other things, the Cupertino giant will continue to collect a 30% cut of revenues. Big Fish founder Paul Thelen had the following to say when it came to dealing with Apple regarding the monthly subscription model:
    It took longer than usual to be approved… they needed to be convinced there’s a reason to charge customers every month.
    I’d like to see what creative ideas game developers come up with now that new monthly subscription model will be allowed. What kind of games would you like to see utilizing the model? Share any thoughts and opinions below!

    Source: Bloomberg
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Apple Gives The Green Light For a Monthly Subscription Model To Game Publishers started by Akshay Masand View original post
    Categories:
    1. iOS,
    2. Apple,
    3. AppStore,
    4. iPad
    Comments 8 Comments
    1. BenderRodriguez's Avatar
      BenderRodriguez - 11-22-2011, 08:05 PM
      There's no reason to charge a monthly fee when you can just make the app $5.00 unless your rude or unless the app is free to start with

      There's no point unless the game is as good as WOW and it would need to offer online play(MMORPG)
    1. DaLsim's Avatar
      DaLsim - 11-22-2011, 08:37 PM
      $$$$... The next CRAPple...
    1. ninicp's Avatar
      ninicp - 11-22-2011, 08:38 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by BenderRodriguez View Post
      There's no reason to charge a monthly fee when you can just make the app $5.00 unless your rude or unless the app is free to start with

      There's no point unless the game is as good as WOW and it would need to offer online play(MMORPG)
      Very well put. I completely agree.
    1. sziklassy's Avatar
      sziklassy - 11-22-2011, 08:59 PM
      I erealize devs put a lot of time and energy into these games, but they are also getting more and more greedy. In-app purchases are already ridiculous (extra levels that you beat in under and hour for a couple bucks - the entire game ends up costing $20 to complete). iOS games used to have great value. They are slowly creeping up to cost as much as a PSP/DS game. Now I am going to have to pay monthly to play a quick round of diner dash? And we wonder why pircay runs rampant.
    1. Megaorange's Avatar
      Megaorange - 11-22-2011, 09:26 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by DaLsim View Post
      $$$$... The next CRAPple...
      Why do many of your posts consist of this.

      This is a bad idea. Next thing you know $5 a month to play angry birds.
    1. NegativeBeef's Avatar
      NegativeBeef - 11-23-2011, 12:37 AM
      isn't there an mmorpg for the iphone that's already subscription based?
    1. birdtales's Avatar
      birdtales - 11-23-2011, 11:09 AM
      Actually this isn't as bad as it may seem depending on your taste in games. My wife loves Big Fish Hidden Object games and has spent 30 or more dollars on them. They have a catalog of some 70 iPhone and 80 iPad games and if she can play any one she wants at any time it would certainly save me money pretty quickly. The games run 4.99 to 6.99 each without the subscription.
    1. Stumbows's Avatar
      Stumbows - 11-23-2011, 03:21 PM
      Yea I think some people are missing the point that it's not a monthly subscription for one game but for their whole catalogue which ends up being much better value considering I've on occasion dropped $7+ on a game only to have played it for a day and been bored but at least that would have been a whole month to play any of their 80 games on my iPad. And once other big time developers get on board it could be a real plus just as long as we don't lose the ability to buy games individually as well for the people that might only be interested in one or two from a particular dev.