“Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are each reportedly working on their own versions of a “Netflix for games,” as the tech giants enter a heated battle to own the subscription business for video games,” Sara Fischer reports for Axios.
“Google is planning to unveil its videogame service at the Game Developer’s Conference next month in San Francisco, Fortune reports. The search giant is reportedly spending heavily to get game publishers to license their content,” Fischer reports. “Apple is looking to build a service that allows users who pay a subscription fee to access a bundled list of titles, Cheddar reported in January. Apple could choose to use a March 25 event, where it is expected to introduce news and video subscriptions, to also debut a game subscription offering.”
“Microsoft’s service could let users play high-end video games anytime on any device, not just Microsoft’s own Xbox console,” Fischer reports. “Amazon is building a subscription streaming service for games… The problem is that the economics right now don’t incentivize game publishers to license their content to tech companies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We imagine subscription gaming services would take a long time to develop into widely-used offerings.
Apple and games what a laugh…
Interesting. I have steam (Mac) and just cancelled my Gamefly due to lack of time. I’d been holding some PS games for months without really playing them, I now just buy them from eBay.
I can see such a service maybe taking a bit out of game rentals but for those titles that are purchased would make no difference. Success of this type of service may depend highly on the connection the user has available especially for fast moving games. Casual games would be an easy fit.
Games on the integrated Intel graphics?…sounds awesome. Way to really push the envelope there.