For the last few years, my gaming has been stuck in the past. The last modern console I bought was a Wii U and I still play on my PlayStation 3 regularly.
I’ve written in many times berating the all-digital future and, seeing the Apple Arcade attempt, I’m more disturbed than ever that publishers are trying to take away game ownership from us and railroad us into subscription models for all forms of entertainment media.
Well, I’m not having anything to do with it. What I perceive is that digital game stores will fragment by publisher and you’ll end up paying multiple subscriptions just to play the games you want, instead of having one unified store where you purchase what you want, when you want and then own it. And I can’t believe that the Apple Arcade sub will lock Beyond A Steel Sky behind its paywall. What’s next, Shenmue III?
Beyond that, what slice of revenue will the developers get on the subscription model?
Who will decide the intrinsic value of the devs hard work, and its future value, and will it be a fair valuation or will the developers end up fighting for a fair slice like performing artists are having to do with Spotify and YouTube?
Maybe I’ve read this all wrong, but we all know that companies like EA and Activision are only interested in money, and lots of it at that. But I see only that we appear to be moving towards a future where you, in effect, just have a short-term lease, a brief window on what they want you to play, and that product can be withdrawn whenever they wish.
After that pile of misery, on a positive note, I believe the arcade game that WonkiestAnt was referring to was called WEC Le Mans 24, as it came with a car-shaped racing cabinet that sat on a base and spun about as you steered. Wasn’t bad, but wasn’t OutRun either!
ZiPPi
