Ubisoft has started allowing subscribers to the service Ubisoft+ his play Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown 3 days in advance compared to other platforms. The company also introduced a subscription plan for PC at a lower price. Obviously, Ubisoft is wanting to promote its subscription service to attract more users. That’s not wrong, but what’s wrong here is that, according to Philippe Tremblay, the company’s director of registration, it’s important to make players “comfortable” with not owning their own games.
In fact, the price to pay when registering for the Ubisoft+ service is not cheap, up to 17.99 USD (equivalent to 440,000 VND) per month just to play this company’s own games. The PC version also costs up to 7.99 USD (about 195,000 VND) per month. It should be noted that, throughout last year, the company only released 5 non-mobile games. This price is too expensive when compared to Xbox’s Game Pass and only a little cheaper than PlayStation Plus, but it should be noted, with the two services mentioned above, players will have access to hundreds of games from not only a manufacturer. The advantages and disadvantages between the two sides are very clear.
However, there are still quite a few people who subscribe to Ubisoft+. According to Tremblay, the company had its most successful month ever last October, when the service became available. “millions” registrant and “over half a billion hours of play”. Of course, much of it may come from Ubisoft’s refusal to release games on Steam, forcing PC players to use their service and possibly opt for a one-month subscription instead of paying for the entire title.
Not stopping there, Tremblay also expressed how Ubisoft wants to see it “Consumer change”, similar to the CD and DVD market, where people have turned to Spotify and Netflix, instead of buying physical products to keep for themselves. Tremblay said:
“One of the things we’ve noticed is that gamers are used to, a bit like DVDs, buying and owning their games. There needs to be a change on the consumer side. They need to feel comfortable not owning their CD or DVD collection. It’s a transition that’s happening a little bit more slowly (in the gaming industry). When the player feels more comfortable in that aspect… you will not lose your progress (save file). If you continue your game at another time, your save file is still there. It has not been deleted. You won’t lose what you’ve built in the game or your attachment to the game. So it’s a liberating feeling of not owning your game.”
Tremblay continued: “But as people embrace that model, they’ll see that these games will survive, the service will continue, and you’ll be able to access them when you want..”
But…we all know that’s wrong. We all know how often services close down, or how many games are no longer available. Needless to say, The Day Before is an obvious example when the game closed after only a few days of launch. If you have already purchased the game, you can still play it. But what if you subscribe to it through a service like Ubisoft? You have lost it forever. Ubisoft itself also has a few games that have been completely evaporated, such as Memorium released in 2003, which is now nowhere to be found and is not present on Classics. There’s no reason to guarantee that the same thing won’t happen with Ubisoft’s current games.
In short, there is nothing to blame if users want to spend money to sign up for a service like Ubisoft+ to play the company’s games for a certain period of time, because they are obviously cheaper than buying them all. game title. However, please note that when you do that, you do not actually own them, but only have the right to play them while you maintain your subscription. When you can’t maintain them anymore, you will lose them. Consider the amount of money you spend to buy a game, the amount to maintain the subscription, the number of games you can play in that subscription, compare to find the optimal solution. Don’t let Ubisoft fool you. Never feel comfortable not owning the game you paid for. Nothing is permanent, and Ubisoft’s service is even more so.
