It appears that gaming industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls is not sure that we will ever see a “Netflix of games.” At the 2022 Game Developers Conference, Harding-Rolls explained that he isn’t sold on the idea of subscription services becoming the dominant force in the gaming market.
“I don’t believe that subscriptions will become the dominant monetization model in the games sector as it has done progressively in the video and music sectors,” he said.
Harding-Rolls also had data to back up his claim. According to Ampere Analysis, subscriptions currently make up 4% of the total video game market. This number is expected to jump to 8.4% by 2027. While PC Gamers‘ Tyler Wilde said that this will be “a significant amount of money,” he still recognizes that this will be “a small slice of gaming as a whole.”
“According to Harding-Rolls, people who use subscription services spend more on average on full games, expansions, in-game purchases, and season passes… One likely influence is that subscribers have a reason to try out new games that non-subscribers don’t: They’re already paying for them,” Wilde writes. “Whatever the case, Harding-Rolls doesn’t buy the idea that we’re on the verge of a Netflix-like takeover, even as Netflix itself gets into games.”
Piers Harding-Rolls is a highly-respected member of the video game industry, so it is significant when he makes a claim like this. He has spent the last two years as the head of games research for Ampere Analysis, so he has a good understanding of trends in the gaming sector.
(All information was provided by LinkedIn and PC Gamer)
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