The Yearly Release Cycle is Just Fine

[ridemooses]

I'm a little disappointed you never considered a subscription-type game that uses would buy into for a base price and then pay money monthly or yearly for updates. To me this only makes sense as Madden 10 is still pretty much the same basis as Madden 11 just with upgrades so that begs the question, why can't we received these upgrades without having to buy an entirely new game. The companies could potentially make more money by charging a subscription as well as save money on shipping and packaging costs.

A standard disk would suffice to start and then updates could be made the same way they are now through patches. If a user does not want to subscribe anymore they would still have the disk and the latest patch but could not receive anymore updates.

For me this is the next generation option for sports gamers who faithfully purchase the game each year hoping for improvements, through subscription gaming users can request updates and changes more quickly and directly making the game more straightforward: if the users aren't subscribing, the game isn't worth buying in the first place.

[Cardot]

Quote: Originally Posted by ridemooses

I'm a little disappointed you never considered a subscription-type game that uses would buy into for a base price and then pay money monthly or yearly for updates. To me this only makes sense as Madden 10 is still pretty much the same basis as Madden 11 just with upgrades so that begs the question, why can't we received these upgrades without having to buy an entirely new game. The companies could potentially make more money by charging a subscription as well as save money on shipping and packaging costs.

It is an interesting idea, but how much is is the annual subscription? Presumably less than $60?...but then the developers are losing money (I don't think the savings from shipping and packaging are going to cover it.)

A monthly subcription is a tricky subject as well. If I don't subscribe for 6 months, can I subscribe for one month and get all the updates from the prior six monhts, and then drop my subscription after one month?....wait another 6 months and do the same?