Even in subscriptions, Nintendo is playing its own game

gamesindustry.biz:

James Batchelor

Editor-in-Chief

Friday 18th March 2022

Nintendo

There's an argument to be made that the rise of video game subscription services is inevitable. Take a look at any other form of entertainment -- TV, film, music, books -- and you'll see all have been disrupted, sometimes irreversibly, by the monthly fee model.

Conventional wisdom across the wider entertainment world is that subscriptions should offer access to a vast library of almost all content on the relevant platform: Netflix, Spotify, Kindle Unlimited and many others operate in this way. It's this expectation that made the Stadia business model so jarring, ultimately to the detriment of Google's service.

And it's certainly the model that Microsoft has been most vocal about with Xbox Game Pass, which now has hundreds of titles -- from brand new first-party games and recent AAA blockbusters to debut indie games and classic games from past generations -- available to its subscribers. Sony has this capacity too, thanks to the longer running but less noisy PlayStation Now, and rumours persist that the platform holder will combine this with its PS Plus service to create a 'one stop shop' style subscription that has come to be expected from entertainment.

Nintendo seems to be in no hurry to follow this model -- but when is Nintendo ever in a hurry to step in line with other games companies? (Let's not forget the 2017 launch of Nintendo Switch Online is essentially the equivalent of 2010's PlayStation Plus or 2002's Xbox Live)

"The Expansion Pass is more akin to adding extra channels to your Sky TV package, than a true Game Pass rival"

Last year Nintendo added to its subscription service with its Expansion Pass, but this isn't the equivalent of PlayStation Now or