From the point of view of many gamers, a subscription is a good deal. In these services you can find both small projects and games with multi-million dollar budgets. According to the former president of PlayStation, subscription is not the place for AAA games.
In an interview, Sean Layden stated that small projects can benefit greatly from having a subscription. With games that cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to create, the situation is different.
“I think subscriptions are interesting for people who just want to experience games. But in my opinion, this is a world for AAA or A games. If you make a AAA game that costs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to make, you can't recoup it through subscriptions.”
Leiden noted that with normal distribution the game makes money constantly. If you have a subscription (besides the launch), this is a one-time deal, and the subsequent profit is much less, since most people prefer to play on the service. For developers, such a deal is not very profitable in the long term. According to Leyden, the best way to support the developers is to simply buy the game.
For example, Horizon: Forbidden West sold well during its first year, and a year after its release, Sony included it in PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium, which led to a significant decline in sales.
Sean Layden also touched on the topic of gaming exclusivity. A lot has changed on this issue in recent years.
“Exclusivity will always be important because it helps focus and highlight the features of a particular platform. It shows what you can achieve technically that you can't do elsewhere. But when your platform becomes established and popular in the market, I think the need for exclusive games becomes a little less.”
