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A wholly subscription-driven games industry would be “savage”, says Larian CEOSwen Vincke rebuts Ubisoft exec’s claim that players need to “get comfortable” with not owning their games
Swen Vincke rebuts Ubisoft exec’s claim that players need to “get comfortable” with not owning their games
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Larian Studios
Larian CEO Swen Vincke has been reading Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay’sthoughts from yesterdayabout how players need to “get comfortable” with renting their games as a package, rather than “having and owning” an individual copy. His broad takeaway is: that ain’t it, chief. In a social media thread today, Vincke wrote that “it’s going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not”. He feels that “direct from developer to players is the way”. As such you shouldn’t expectBaldur’s Gate 3,Divinity: Original Sin 2or any other LarianRPGsto join the Game Pass bandwagon anytime soon.
Where Tremblay made a case for why consumers should be at ease with purchasing access to an evolving blob of videogame releases, Vincke addressed things from more of a developer’s perspective, arguing that subscription models give platform holders too much creative authority and will inevitably breed conservatism.
Whatever the future of games looks like, content will always be king. But it’s going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not. Direct from developer to players is the way.https://t.co/wEUvd5adt0— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian)January 17, 2024
Whatever the future of games looks like, content will always be king. But it’s going to be a lot harder to get good content if subscription becomes the dominant model and a select group gets to decide what goes to market and what not. Direct from developer to players is the way.https://t.co/wEUvd5adt0
It goes without saying, then, that “you won’t find our games on a subscription service even if I respect that for many developers it presents an opportunity to make their game,” Vincke went on. “I don’t have an issue with that. I just want to make sure the other ecosystem doesn’t die because it’s valuable.”
Other developers, however, have said that they increasinglyfeel they have no choicebut to embrace the subscription model if their games are to be played at all, however unfavourable the terms (it’s worth remembering, here, that Microsoft once deemedBaldur’s Gate 3a “second-run Stadia PC RPG”, according toleaked documents, estimating that it would cost a relatively tiddly $5 million to secure it for Game Pass).
Disclosure: Former RPS deputy editor Adam Smith (RPS in peace) now works at Larian and is the lead writer for Baldur’s Gate 3. Former contributor Emily Gera also works on it.
