Gaming Industry Subscriptions

Subscription history

According to Sergei, subscriptions have been around for many years outside the gaming industry. The oldest is newspaper and magazine subscriptions. This is the same regularly receiving content at regular intervals. He said that as a child he subscribed to the supplement for the magazine “Young Technician for Skillful Hands”, “Science and Life”, “Around the World” and the magazine “America”, which was published by the American Embassy. And Mikhail shared that as a child he subscribed to “Murzilka”, “Funny Pictures”, “Young Technician”, “Crocodile”.

He also added that subscriptions to newspapers and magazines have always been planned in the family budget as a separate article. Everyone stopped signing when the Union began to fall apart, and the magazines got thinner, the paper got worse.

First, everyone switched to the terrible yellow paper, then to the Finnish printing houses, because the locals died, then to the Ukrainian ones, and then the Internet appeared and killed everyone. In many families in Soviet times, subscriptions were made immediately for a year. And in the west, usually once a month, because they have the infrastructure to withdraw money from the card once a month.
Sergey Galyonkin
Director of Publishing Strategy, Epic Games

Mikhail added that in the USSR it was necessary to come to the post office with a receipt once a month, which was extremely inconvenient.

Even before newspapers and magazines, there was a subscription to a milkman. You've probably seen this in the movies. In America, this has survived to this day, I use this service. A milkman comes to you once a week or more often and brings you fresh milk and dairy products. At the beginning of the 20th century, people signed up like this. Modern subscription-based grocery services continue the tradition of dairy producers that began over a century ago.
Sergey Galyonkin
Director of Publishing Strategy, Epic Games

In fact, this format extends far beyond the media and product realm. For example, there is insurance, utilities are also subscriptions. Even on Amazon, you can subscribe to various little things – batteries, sweeteners. In such cases, Amazon offers a 10-15% discount if you order regularly.

Mikhail noted that it takes some time to change consciousness. Over time, the patterns change when you begin to understand that you don’t need to go somewhere if you order something not too urgent.

Do not think that the products will run out, because they are constantly being brought in. In Europe, I used a grocery ordering service. You place an order, and then just click on the "repeat order" button, and you do not need to set up anything again. Almost like a subscription. There are car sharing services in Germany. In fact, a car is not needed in the city, parking, insurance and petrol are expensive, so many people use the service.
Sergey Galyonkin
Director of Publishing Strategy, Epic Games

Digital subscriptions

According to Sergei, now there are few examples of large software that are massively bought and not subscribed to. Offhand, you can only remember Microsoft Windows. Sergey noted that almost all the software he uses is subscription: Evernote, Lightroom, Photoshop, Office. And then there’s entertainment like Netflix, Disney +, Apple Music, Spotify.

Moreover, most often, even similar services differ significantly from each other. For example, file storage: it is easier for ordinary users to use Dropbox because it is convenient. And workers can be uploaded to Google Drive, as it guarantees safety.

Mikhail is subscribed to Amazon Prime, YouTube Premium, various Yandex services. He also advised to use Google Workspace in work – there is an unlimited space in shared shares and there you can keep all the materials for backup: builds, promo materials, and so on.

At the same time, there are a variety of subscription formats that are distributed locally. For example, Sergey said that he uses a subscription service on a router that protects the entire network from advertising. And at airports there is a Clear service, which allows you to quickly go through security and not stand in line for a long time.
In-game subscriptions

According to Sergei, now most of the talk is about subscriptions to games – like Game Pass or EA Play. In fact, game subscriptions date back to the days of Ultima Online. Another famous example is World of Warcraft: there was a hybrid approach, when you had to buy a box with a game, and then also pay for a subscription. Now many free-to-play games contain a subscription inside: Black Desert Online, mobile Mario Kart, Lineage 2, Dota 2, Fortnite.