There was a time when the idea of a Netflix-style subscription for video games sounded like the best thing ever. Unlimited access to a massive library of games for a flat monthly fee? No more dropping $70 on every new release? Just pay once and play whatever you want? Sign me up.
That’s what they sold us on. That was the dream.
But here we are in 2025, and instead of feeling like a golden age of gaming, subscription services feel more like a slow-moving scam we all willingly walked into.
It’s not just Game Pass. It’s PlayStation Plus. It’s Ubisoft+, EA Play, Apple Arcade, Amazon Luna—everyone is trying to lock us into their own little walled garden.
And instead of making gaming better, it’s making everything feel… worse.
The Bait and Switch: How Subscription Services Hooked Us In
Game Pass was the big one. Microsoft rolled it out like a godsend—”Here! Have hundreds of games! Play new first-party releases on day one! No more spending $70 on a game you might hate!”
At first, it was amazing.
- You could try out games you’d never buy otherwise.
- Indie games got a spotlight they never would’ve had.
- Xbox felt like it was giving players insane value.
Then the shift started.
- The big day-one games started getting delayed (or just never showed up).
- More and more games started rotating out of the library—sometimes disappearing right before you actually got around to playing them.
- Subscription prices started creeping up.
And that was just Microsoft.
Sony jumped in and made PlayStation Plus even more confusing than it already was. Basic tier? No real benefits. Middle tier? Some old games. Premium? A weird mix of classics and streaming nonsense nobody wanted.
Ubisoft decided, “Hey, what if we charged $18 a month for JUST our games?”—even though nobody wants to pay a separate subscription just to play Assassin’s Creed games.
And suddenly, instead of making gaming more accessible, subscriptions started making it more of a fragmented mess.
The Streaming Wars All Over Again (But Worse)
This is exactly what happened with TV.
Netflix started strong. Everything was in one place. Then, slowly but surely, every studio and network decided they wanted their own slice of the pie. Now, if you want to watch everything, you need Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Hulu, Peacock, and a dozen other random services that exist for no reason.
Gaming is heading in the same direction.
Want all the best games? You’re gonna need multiple subscriptions.
- Starfield? Game Pass.
- Spider-Man 2? PlayStation Plus Extra.
- Assassin’s Creed Red? Ubisoft+.
- EA Sports FC? EA Play.
- Some random indie game you wanted to check out? Might be on Game Pass… but not for long.
And unlike TV shows, games actually disappear from these services all the time. It’s not just losing access to some old movie—if a game leaves the service, you’re locked out of your progress unless you buy it outright.
You Don’t Own Your Games Anymore (And That’s Exactly What They Want)
This is the real endgame of all of this.
Publishers don’t want you to buy games anymore. They don’t want you to own them. They want you renting access to a rotating library forever.
Because once you own a game, you stop giving them money.
But if they can make you dependent on a subscription? If they can keep you inside their ecosystem, never actually owning anything, always one month away from losing access to the things you love?
That’s how they win.
This is why publishers are pushing subscription models so hard, even when it’s clearly not sustainable. They want a future where every game is just a service. Where nobody owns anything. Where the idea of just buying a game feels outdated.
Is Subscription Gaming Doomed to Fail?
Maybe.
Because here’s the problem: it’s only a good deal if the games stay good.
And right now, the biggest thing keeping Game Pass and PlayStation Plus alive is backlog content. Old games. Games that already exist. But AAA publishers are crumbling. Layoffs. Cancellations. Studio closures.
What happens when the new games stop coming?
Because make no mistake, subscription services live and die by their new content. Netflix was fine for years, but as soon as they started losing new, fresh hits, people unsubscribed.
What happens when Game Pass can’t deliver big day-one games anymore? When publishers decide they’d rather charge $70 than put their games on a service for a fraction of the revenue?
What happens when subscriptions start costing as much as just buying two games a year?
So What Should We Do?
Right now, subscription gaming is a slow-moving trap.
It still feels like a good deal—because for now, it still is. But the cracks are showing. The prices are going up. The libraries are getting worse. And in a few years, we might look back at this whole thing as just another industry scam we all fell for.
So the best advice? Don’t get locked in.
Use these services for what they are—a way to try games, a way to get value while it’s still there—but don’t let them replace actually owning the games you love.
Because that’s exactly what they want.
And once you give that up, good luck ever getting it back.