Subscription gaming wars loom: Apple, other tech giants, working on ‘Netflix for games’ services

“Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are each reportedly working on their own versions of a “Netflix for games,” as the tech giants enter a heated battle to own the subscription business for video games,” Sara Fischer reports for Axios.
“Google is planning to unveil its videogame service at the Game Developer’s Conference next month in San Francisco, Fortune reports. The search giant is reportedly spending heavily to get game publishers to license their content,” Fischer reports. “Apple is looking to build a service that allows users who pay a subscription fee to access a bundled list of titles, Cheddar reported in January. Apple could choose to use a March 25 event, where it is expected to introduce news and video subscriptions, to also debut a game subscription offering.”
“Microsoft’s service could let users play high-end video games anytime on any device, not just Microsoft’s own Xbox console,” Fischer reports. “Amazon is building a subscription streaming service for games… The problem is that the economics right now don’t incentivize game publishers to license their content to tech companies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We imagine subscription gaming services would take a long time to develop into widely-used offerings.

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