Just 10% of video game spending goes towards subscriptions

Recently, a comment from one Ubisoft executive drew a lot of attention due to their claims that subscription services would be the future, with players needing to get “comfortable” with not owning their games. Despite this, it seems as though such services are not quite as lucrative as they are positioned, with just 10% of all video game spending going to subscriptions.

Following the controversial comments by Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions – Philippe Tremblay – who stated “One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection,” devs and players alike have gone online to refute these claims.

One piece of pushback comes from industry analyst Mat Piscatella who took to Twitter to reveal that subscription services are not the be-all-end-all for the industry, saying:

“Subscription growth has flattened, and sub services on console and PC platforms accounts for only 10% of total video game content spending in the US. I get that some people want to protect their preferred model, but the idea that subs will become dominant is unsupported by data.”

Piscatella concluded by saying “Subs have been more additive than cannibalistic, and offer players, devs and pubs more choice in how to play or how to go to market. Fear mongering on this topic is quite unnecessary.”

Of course, as mentioned by Piscatella these figures only apply to the US market – though considering it is one of the biggest, the fact that subscriptions only account for 10% of the market is quite telling.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of Ubisoft’s statement? Do you agree? How much do you spend a month on such services? Let us know down below.

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