Players Need To Start “Feeling Comfortable” With Not Owning Games, Says Ubisoft Subs Boss

Image: Ubisoft

Yesterday, Ubisoft launched a rebrand of its subscription service, Ubisoft+ Premium, and brought its Classics package to PC. Clearly, the company sees this as a step into the future of gaming as its director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, told GamesIndustry.biz that players need to become “comfortable” with the idea of not owning their games.

The Ubisoft+ Premium service offers access to new (and occasionally upcoming) games on Xbox, PC and Amazon Luna for a monthly fee that currently stands at £14.99 / $17.99. No, it doesn’t affect the Switch for the time being, but it does point towards the company’s future approach to sales.

Tremblay’s argument, as voiced to GamesIndustry.biz, is that streaming is now commonplace in other sectors of the entertainment industry (particularly film, TV and music) and, unusually, gaming has not followed that trajectory quite so quickly:

One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That’s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That’s a transformation that’s been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don’t lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That’s not been deleted. You don’t lose what you’ve built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it’s about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.

Tremblay states that Ubisoft sees “a tremendous opportunity for growth” in this respect, though he adds that he can “understand the gamers’ perspective” with the current ownership model.

As people embrace that [streaming] model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you’ll be able to access them when you feel like. That’s reassuring.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which we called “2024’s first must-play” in our review, is the latest game to be made available on the streaming service before its general release. Be sure to check out the full GamesIndustry.biz interview for Tremblay’s thoughts on the game’s inclusion, Ubisoft’s plans for Activision Blizzard streaming and more.

So, what do you make of all this? How comfortable do you feel with the prospect of not owning any games in the future? You can fill out the following poll and then take to the comments to share your thoughts.

How comfortable would you be with not owning your games? (1,055 votes)

[source gamesindustry.biz]

Be it rambling about video games or superheroes, Jim wears his passions on his sleeve. Usually found replaying a Zelda title instead of working through his ever-growing backlog, he is a huge fan of all-things fantasy and likes nothing more than to chat about it.