According to Ubisoft UK, the videogame industry is sort of going through an important phase with the earlier ‘full game’ model slowly becoming less cost-effective, especially in terms of providing lasting value to the players as opposed to the newer models of subscription based services, free-to-play and games-as-a-service titles.
In a strategic report for the year ending March 2025, Ubisoft UK wrote about what they believe to be a huge impending paradigm shift for the industry where most people only prioritize a select batch of games which results in newer IPs to become more struggling in terms of revenue, making titles that are part of subscription-based systems shine more as a result.
“The traditional ‘full game’ model of selling a single £50 – £60 game to a consumer as a one-time purchase continues to become less ubiquitous, with multi game subscription services, long running games-as-a-service titles, free-to-play games, and cloud streaming offerings all providing new and attractive ways for consumers to access gaming content.”
“Consumers are playing fewer games, playing them for longer, and as a result, outside of a few notable exceptions, many new games are struggling to stand out and achieve the sales they may once have had, while the market is more volatile and the potential for any specific title less predictable as a result.”
Their statement was followed by the assumption that Ubisoft Limited will be seeing falling revenues in the upcoming months.
Now part of what Ubisoft has said regarding the current era in the industry may well be true, but it’s also a fact that the subscription based systems have proven to be only profitable for the publishers and not so much for the developers. In fact, many industry veterans have criticized services like Game Pass for the exact same reason which clearly indicates that they are potentially harmful for both players and the devs in more ways than one.
But even if the subscription models eventually become more popular and viable, the overall market is always large enough to accommodate both models of games to coexist together.
