Herve’ Hoerdt, Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe’s senior vice president of marketing, digital and content spoke to a gaming website in a recent interview about the potential dangers of the subscription model for video games.
Bandai Namco executive does not like subscription services
Hoerdt said that the rise of video game subscription models like EA Access can be potential threats for the gaming community. He said that the value in the end is too low for further investment into future content.
Here’s Hoerdt’s statement:
Subscriptions are more of a threat, that’s for sure. Because the business model behind subscriptions will be based on two things: the number of hours played on your game compared to the total hours people played, and the number of games played compared to the total number of games. So, in the value chain, we see a lot of cascading and the value in the end is too low for us to be able to invest further in the content. So that’s a threat we see. But otherwise, generally speaking, it’s exciting, it’s appealing, it’s more opportunities going forwards.
The executive also revealed that the gaming company is quite interested in exploring streaming services. He pointed out that there is a common misconception that streaming services are based on subscription models, which is not necessarily the case. He said that it is not mandatory compared to subscription models. This is the reason why they are now making tests and putting Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 on the upcoming platform Stadia.
Hoerdt stated that the company is planning to put their games on as many platforms as possible. Exclusivity is not part of its vision.
Source: MCV