Help, I'm Suffocating Under The Weight Of Video Game Subscription Services

thegamer.com:

With the news of GTA+ and the impending arrival of the new PlayStation Plus, my enthusiasm for game subscription services is quickly draining. The novelty and value of these memberships will soon be outweighed by the overwhelming cost of maintaining so many - if it hasn’t happened already. As a model, subscription services do have a lot to offer. But as competitors clamor for market share and the gaming landscape continues to morph around subscriptions, it’s easy to see how the value proposition will slowly but surely fall away in favor until players become pinned down by dozens of unavoidable, inescapable game subscriptions.

In the grand scheme of things, Sony’s rebranded PlayStation subscription is actually lagging pretty far behind the competition. Microsoft has developed Game Pass into a remarkable service over the last year, and even before that we already had similar subscription offerings from Ubisoft, EA, Nintendo Switch Online, and Humble Choice. Streaming via xCloud is the feature Game Pass truly pioneered, but despite being the most popular it certainly wasn’t the first. Stadia, GeForce Now, and Prime Gaming all launched before xCloud left beta. And of course, PlayStation Now has had a large selection of on-demand games for the last eight years. Despite being last to market in a lot of ways, Game Pass has been so dominant that it gives the appearance that others are just now catching up.

Related: Sony Isn't Making Game Pass, It's Making Nintendo Switch Online

We’ll likely see a similar situation with GTA+, a new subscription service for Grand Theft Auto Online announced just last week. You might remember Fallout 1st, a Fallout 76 subscription that offers similar benefits to GTA+. And of course, MMOs like Final