An interview with the president of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, revealed that the publisher is thinking about a potential subscription model for their catalogue.
“Subscription model” is the hot word of the year with more and more publishers jumping onto the train that’ll see customers paying a monthly fee to have access to a massive collection of games. On paper, it’s a solid idea. Services like EA Access, Xbox Game Pass and Uplay Pass provided players with literally hundreds of games to choose from at any time while only paying a fixed monthly rate that’s usually cheaper than a single new release. As far as publishers go, they’re ensured to have a monthly income without gambling on single releases to make a return. The subscription model has proved so popular among publishers that it looks like even Square Enix is wading into the thick of it.
President Yosuke Matsuda told GameIndustry.biz that Square Enix has been thinking of eventually setting up a subscription service for their catalogue of titles. “We do already provide games for Microsoft’s Game Pass, but at the end of the day, the direction that we’re thinking about is having a channel of our own”, said Matsuda. Square Enix does have an impressively large collection of high quality (and not so high quality) games that could potentially include in some kind of “Square Pass”, dating back over decades.
Matsuda then went on to say, “(it) would require significant preparations and investment. We’d also have to consider whether or not it will work well solely including our own catalogue titles…But eventually I do think that we need to get to the point where we have enough insight that we can build our own service”.
This comes after the recent news that Square Enix is indeed attempting to get many of its older games onto digital platforms so as to allow players access to an even larger library to choose from. Square Enix currently has many titles already available over on Xbox Game Pass but having a separate subscription service all their own would definitely prove beneficial for the publisher as they attempt to compete with the likes of Microsoft and EA.
Last Updated: June 14, 2019
Jacques Van Zyl
June 14, 2019 at 10:14
personally, I don’t like or want this. This subscription model is great business, yes, but I have a very limited budget. Adding up the various subs each month (humble, netflix, xbox live, what have you) actually ends up costing more than simply catching a movie at the cinema or buying the 2 or 3 titles I am keen on playing.
Might just be a “me” problem, but I am tired of hearing more and more things switching to a subscription based model.
For the Emperor!
June 14, 2019 at 10:30
Not just a “you” problem. Netflix is cool, but Netflix, Showmax, Hulu, DC, Amazon etc…it all ads up. Too many choices and exclusivity on said choices means more money spent by us.
Pariah
June 14, 2019 at 10:53
Actually it doesn’t mean more money spent by us. It means that we make choices, and the numbers for each of the competitors goes down. It’s like they’re operating on the assumption that consumers have unlimited money to spend. But we don’t, so in the end there’s an upper limit, like everything, and the numbers are going to go down, have a bit of a crash of expectations, and things might normalise again. If the subscription model survives the inevitable crash.
Mark Treloar
June 14, 2019 at 12:43
Choices are good, but when it get to the point of passing on something because of affordability due to too many locked subscriptions IE:EA. it could be very costly. PC gaming has unfortunately become a big problem. We almost quite literally no longer own the games we buy. If a developer or store cuts our access we loose.
For the Emperor!
June 14, 2019 at 11:16
“Actually it doesn’t mean more money spent by us” – you are right, it might not. But it could 🙂
Personally I have Netflix and nothing else, due to being forced to make a choice and them having the wider selection of things I actually want to watch. No game subscriptions at all…
Pariah
June 14, 2019 at 11:17
I sub to Netflix, Crunchyroll and Spotify. Fulfills all my needs, personally. I do also sub to the Humble Monthly, but there I have the option of pausing if I don’t want the headline games.
For the Emperor!
June 14, 2019 at 11:23
Crunchyroll, anime right? If so I will check it out since I want more anime and less normal series in my life actually…
Pariah
June 14, 2019 at 11:39
Yeah it’s Anime. There are one or 2 licensing limitations, like the first season of Fairy Tale isn’t available (this is the only one so far that I feel like I’m missing out on), but otherwise there’s a ton of content and it’s up-to-date locally.
I can give you a guest pass if you like, to try it out? I’ll need like your email or something for that though.
For the Emperor!
June 14, 2019 at 11:39
Thanks for the offer! I will check out what they have tonight that tickles my fancy and then get back to you if that is OK. Though I see Showmax has launched streaming of sport…need to test that as well over the weekend
Dresden
June 14, 2019 at 11:39
Thank you for that tidbit of information. Now I can stream some sport this weekend for the first time in ages!
For the Emperor!
June 14, 2019 at 12:00
Seems very limited as @disqus_9d4L7lqp4k:disqus states above. Just trying to suck us in perhaps. But, at least you can see the Proteas lose to Afghanistan this weekend 😛
HvR
June 14, 2019 at 12:00
Live sport streamed this wekend:
CWC ZA vs Arg
Supersport Rugby Challenge semi-finals:
Pumas vs Boland
WP vs Griquas
That is it
HvR
June 14, 2019 at 12:00
Like everything else Showmax does it very underwhelming. Almost no sport streams; just the CWC ZA games and Supersport challenge rugby series (aka Currie Cup Lite)
It is 95% their Supersport sports magazines and Talk shows and sports movies like Rocky.
For the Emperor!
June 14, 2019 at 12:00
Yeah, I see the limitation are hard, even one which platforms you can stream it on. Darn. Stem in the right direction, but is it a big enough step? (X) Doubt!