Like so many other software companies, Ubisoft has been making a hard push into the world of subscriptions. It launched its own game subscription service, Ubisoft+, a few years back. Since then, the service has been growing steadily and the company just recently made a big change with a bit of a rebranding for Ubisoft+ and an update to its tiers.
Following these changes, GameIndustry.biz caught up with Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions. During their correspondence, Tremblay made it clear that Ubisoft sees a bright future ahead with game subscriptions and expects its customers to eventually get used to the idea of preferring to access a subscription catalog versus owning copies of games.
Shifting tides
“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.” This is the illustration that Tremblay used to explain his (and Ubisoft’s) expectations for gamer’s approaching a subscription-based, streaming-heavy future.
Essentially, just as they were weened off of physical discs for movies, Ubisoft expects the average consumer to eventually come to a point where they’ll be “feeling comfortable with not owning [their] game.”
To further back up this concept, he mentioned that while he himself continues to own DVDs and “understands” why some consumers are apprehensive, he expects that eventually people will “embrace that model, [and] they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you’ll be able to access them when you feel like. That’s reassuring.”
Those last set of words come just weeks after Ubisoft’s Ivory Tower team announced that the original entry in The Crew series has not only been delisted, but will have its online access terminated on March 31; it’s an online-only game (despite having a single-player campaign), so it will soon be inaccessible permanently for the millions of players that purchased it.
Nevertheless, Ubisoft’s lofty goals for subscriptions is made clear with the aforementioned recent rebranding of Ubisoft+.
More avenues
On January 15, Ubisoft announced that it’s renaming its subscription plans for Ubisoft+. In short, Ubisoft+ Multi-Access and PC Access will now be rolled into one as Ubisoft+ Premium.
With this, players can access “day-one new releases and early access where applicable, alongside premium editions, monthly rewards, and more.” This is available on Xbox, PC, and Amazon Luna for $17.99 per month.
Alternatively, there’s also Ubisoft+ Classics for $7.99 per month and that includes access to Ubisoft’s “most popular back-catalog games;” the list of which will “grow with time.” Those with PS Plus on PS4/PS5 also have access to this tier.
Existing members of Ubisoft+ PC Access (again, now Ubisoft+ Premium) will retain their existing membership status with no changes to the price.
In the same interview from earlier, Tremblay explained the decision to offer these two membership tiers as a reaction to player behaviour. Namely, that the company recognised millions of players tapping into its collection of older titles and wanted to “offer these worlds to our consumers for a lower fee.”
Out with the old?
One more interesting takeaway from this interview with Tremblay is his admission that Ubisoft isn’t really trying to force the consumer’s hand in any which way.
While the company does see a bright future for game subscriptions, and also game streaming, “the point is not to force users to go down one route or another”, he says.
Tremblay points to the fact that consumers are free to choose to subscribe or buy, and that Ubisoft has observed many consumers starting off with playing a game via a subscription, but then later converting into a purchase.
No matter which way the consumer goes about interacting with the product, “it all works,” says Tremblay. But, in continued defense of the subscription-based model, he does say, “it is proving to be a way for gamers to access our worlds who perhaps weren’t inclined to purchase”.
Tremblay further admits that he doesn’t exactly know what will come of the subscription model across the gaming industry as time goes on. He stated that despite its “rapid expansion, it’s still relatively small compared to the other models” and even acknowledges that so called ‘subscription fatigue’ “is part of the consumer reality.”
Despite these hurdles, the company is working hard to corral even more consumers into signing up across both consoles and PC.
For Tremblay’s full comments about Ubisoft’s subscription-focused future, the full interview is on GamesIndustry.biz.
Check out more Ubisoft content:
The Crew Motorfest review for PC — Pomp, pageantry and problems | Looking back on the legacy of The Crew 2 | Riders Republic Skate add-on – Is it worth it? | Riders Republic — The Forza Horizon of sports games that’s a sleeper hit
