The subscription service has been something we have seen sweep the gaming industry for the past decade, though the idea of a subscription goes all the way back to the early 1990s when Sega launched the Sega Channel for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in Japan and the United States with Nintendo launching a similar service for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
It wasn’t until Microsoft launched the Xbox Live Silver and Gold subscriptions for the Xbox 360 that we really saw the idea begin to emerge as something more akin to what we see now in terms of popularity.
Both Electronic Arts and Ubisoft have launched their own subscriptions with EA favouring putting their older catalogue onto the service with Ubisoft placing all games onto it day one.
Sony has also extended their PS+ subscription service to include tiers, with the highest including retro games from the first three PlayStation home consoles and the PlayStation Portable. Nintendo too has launched a two tier subscription service that in addition to allowing games to be played online as well as growing catalogues from the retro systems created by Nintendo as well as Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis.
Sega have entered into the discussion regarding one avenue the publisher and developer is looking at will be the creation of their own subscription service, though exactly what this would entail is still unclear. Sega has a massive library from their days in the console market outside of just the Mega Drive, as well as arcade games that would easily add significant value to any such subscription service. Our biggest concern is to whether Sega would offer the subscription as a Netflix style streaming service or as a downloadable one.
