Following the success of subscription services through Newsstand, Apple’s given the go-ahead for a game subscription service from Big Fish Games. For £4.99 a month you’ll have unlimited streaming access to a whole host of iPad games.
Unfortunately users will have to be connected to the internet to play the games, as they’ll be “streamed” to the user’s device. Whether that’ll mean OnLive-style streaming — the iPad is just a dumb monitor and controller — or whether it’ll be a Steam-style activation via the internet to prevent piracy, we don’t know. I’m presuming the latter. The service will be available at an introductory price of £2.99 a month till next year, but would you pay for a subscription service for just one publisher’s games on your iPad? And do you play enough games on said-tablet to justify another monthly cost? I certainly don’t. [Bloomberg via The Verge via Gizmodo UK]
light487
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 9:02 AM“Unfortunately users will have to be connected to the internet to play the games, as they’ll be “streamed” to the user’s device. ”
BOOO!
TSH
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 9:41 AMWas anybody else immediately struck by the colour of the Game Center logo?Clockwise from top left: Red,Green,Yellow,Blue – same as the Windows logo…
Goodwin
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 10:22 AMMaybe it’s a joke about how only windows has games :P
Bring on subscription apps, I’d rather pay as you go subscription service for unlimited apps rather than a pay per app especially when some are >$15 for those glorified novelty apps. I personally would use the subscription to trial the expensive apps to see if the price justifies it’s purpose.
Also think of all the reviews that would be made, ratings would be more accurate and the user base would expand giving developers a better chance at finding all the bugs in their apps and make possible improvements.