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Google is betting that Stadia's advanced streaming technology will solidify its place in the gaming marketplace.
- Paid online services like Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus have become commonplace in the video game industry, and more companies are starting to introduce their own subscription services for gaming content.
- Apple and Google are making major investments into new gaming subscriptions, but they're unlikely to change the way people play their games; they'll just change how we pay for them.
- "Netflix for video games" has been a popular concept for more than a decade, but the popularity of free-to-play games will make it difficult for a Netflix-style, on-demand service to succeed.
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Years before I pledged myself to Amazon Prime or started my decade-long commitment to Netflix, I was a begrudging subscriber of Xbox Live Gold, the service required to take Microsoft's console online and play against other players.
First introduced in 2002, Xbox Live launched the video game industry into the internet era and completely changed the way that video game companies engaged with their customers online.
Paying for Xbox Live as an eager teenager was my first exposure to digital subscriptions. Now, in an era where services like Hulu and Spotify are synonymous with entertainment, there are nearly a dozen different video game subscription services to choose from.
For example, Apple plans to curate a collection of more than 100 games for iPhone owners; Google is launching a massive cloud gaming platform to stream video games directly to players in 4K; and Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts are all offering subscribers access their massive catalogue of games.
Each of these services could be yours for a low monthly fee, and they could very well be worth it, but there's only so much time and money one person can spend on video games. I asked industry analysts about how the arrival of so many new subscription services will affect the industry, and what we can expect from these very different digital strategies.
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