Ubisoft says you need to get ‘comfortable’ not owning your own games

Assassin’s Creed publisher Ubisoft has its own subscription service, Ubisoft+. An executive behind the service believes gamers need to get more ‘comfortable’ not owning games as subscriptions take center stage.

Video game subscriptions have taken off recently as services like Xbox Game Pass offer subscribers a huge library of games for a monthly fee. However, the vast majority of gamers are still more interested in owning titles, either physically or digitally.

In an interview with GamesIndustry, Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay revealed that the Ubisoft+ subscription isn’t anywhere near as big as other subscription services.

“When you look at the different subscription services that are out there, we've had a rapid expansion over the last couple of years, but it's still relatively small compared to the other models," the Ubisoft exec said.

Tremblay said that the expansion of video game subscription services will happen when gamers become more comfortable with not owning their games. With movies and TV successfully moving to streaming, Tremblay believes gamers need to get with the times.

“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],” he said. “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.”

Hilariously, Tremblay claimed that gamers also need to come to terms with the fact that games continue to exist outside of physical media. The Ubisoft exec said this just after the studio revealed the shut down date for its online racing game The Crew.

“I still have two boxes of DVDs. I definitely understand the gamers perspective with that,” Tremblay said. “But as people embrace that 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.”

While the physical games market is shrinking as major retailers like GAME end services, it still has an almost 50/50 split with digital games. This has even led to major game releases like Alan Wake 2 being met with criticism for launching as a digital only title.

Well, since Ubisoft wants us to get comfortable not owning video games, I guess there’s the option of not owning their video games.