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VR on subscription basis would it be better?

PITTCANNA
Visionary

Hypothetical question would a subscription based vr model be better for the oculus quest?

 

I could think of better pricing plan that would actually would work better then pay for title basis.  Hear me out, do you play some games only once, but would be unethical to use the refund even though your under limits for the refund process.  Or you don't want to go in the app and select the refund option.

 

A couple of different models:

Rent to own:  A game that theoretically costs 30 dollars.  You rent for a dollar a day until you reach day 30 where it becomes permanent in your library.  You can stop rent any time but if you don't meet the 30 day period you wont own it.  Or based of hours one dollar an hour until you hit 30 hours then you own the game.  Honestly this would stop some refunding from games that just don't sit well with some users. 

 

4 for 50(monthly): You get to pick 4 games a month and for 50 dollars you out right keep em.

 

60 dollar unlimited: A recurring cost to "lease" games meaning you don't own the games but you can download and play any game any time as long as you pay 60 a month. 

 

70 dollar unlimited (family 2-5 members) You can add up to 5 members all members can download and play any game, yo don't own the game, so if you stop payng the games will go off the device.

9 REPLIES 9

Nekto2
Superstar

Imho not yet.

It could be good for users but will not for developers.

Need to wait for more users for it to work...

falken76
Expert Consultant

No way.  What's wrong with refunding what you don't like as it is?  How would developers get paid?  Do they have to wait for the full 50 or 60 days to pass to see if the game is kept, if it goes for so long, they only get part of the purchase price for the sale?  What I find crazy is how incredibly cheap VR gamers seem to be.  For a long time this tech was crazy expensive to get into, now it's somewhat affordable with the Quest units.  But the average cost of these game in comparison to the mature markets in gaming is peanuts.  Games elsewhere have an average price of at least $50 a title.  In VR, the expensive games are priced in that range.  Hell, $24.99 is considered an expensive game in the VR realm for some reason.

I personally wouldn't sign up for a service like that.  I would want to know how the payments work out if I were a developer because someone should be subsidizing the difference in refunding if you only pay $1 a day towards a game while you decide to keep it.  I think the service would discourage developers from making content, they can't make their full potential, and it'll seem like they're getting screwed if they only get a few dollars for the game as opposed to say $15 to $20 after Final value fees paid to the venu for selling the game.

 

I would be opposed to the idea because the games are already incredibly inexpensive as it is, and it would discourage developers from developing because they would feel like they're getting ripped off and won't want to continue the endeavor, and that would ultimately hurt the genre.

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP

The VivePort Infinity (VPI) subscription is paid monthly or annually (which is what I do) and I think I've gotten very good value out of it over the past 2 years.  I'm currently paid up until Sept/2022.  Initially, compared to Steam, there were far fewer new titles and updates.  This has improved a lot over the past year and in one case, the new Sam and Max VR game was released (as well as the most recent update) on VivePort Infinity almost 2 weeks ahead of when it was released on Steam.  Also, VPI members occasionally get free games offers that they may keep after their infinity membership expires.  For example, I got a free copy of Saints and Sinners last Xmas season.

 

While there are no Quest standalone Mobile VR games on VivePort, most games/apps support Quest + Link (including Air Link on all I've tried, not all with Virtual Desktop though).  There are currently 692 games and 223 apps that support Quest + Link.  So, plenty to choose from and try out imho. 

 

I have downloaded well over 100 games/apps over the past 2 years and even though many of these I just try and then uninstall most are very good and the problem becomes having too many games can mean your backlog of finished games becomes far too great.  Also, you end up having to download updates for games you are not actually playing much at the time.  So, like I do with my Q2 library, I try to limit the installed games to no more than ~10-15 at a time.

 

It will not surprise me to see Oculus/Facebook offer Quest and Rift store subscriptions in the near future.  Esp. as they transition to cloud-based delivery.  Given the large number of Q2's sold you would think that a subscription plan on just the Quest Store would potentially net them a very large profit windfall.

i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

Anonymous
Not applicable

Good to hear from someone using Vive Port Infinity.

I have looked at and considered it after getting the Vive Pro 2 , now I may have to give it a try thanks.

I'd prefer not to go the subscription route personally but I can understand some people would get good use of it.

Ideally a choice would be the best thing.

 

I suppose subscriptions can maybe encourage use. I take a look on Netflix pretty regularly to see what new as I know I'm paying for it. Same deal with going to the gym. 

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

For me, there simply aren't enough high quality games to warrant a monthly price. Even now, my backlog is less than 12 good games, and there is nothing on the market right now that makes me want to even wishlist anything.

 

The only 2 games coming up that I am looking forward to are:

  • Resident Evil 4 remake
  • Lone Echo 2

 

I currently pay monthly fees for things like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Audible. With those services, there are more truly great products available than I have time to enjoy. Which is great, because I always feel behind and always have something to look forward to.

 

The same cannot be said for the entire VR App ecosystem at this time.

I hope that'll change within 2 or 3 years, we still need more take-up, pure and simple.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Interestingly based on Tom's excellent description sounds like for at least the last couple of years they have been offering a pretty good bag of goods. And one would think it will only continue to improve going forward.  I reckon I will be checking it out myself now.

And of course for me this is just some icing on the cake so to speak as I could continue to game in VR daily without any other games purchased with my three flight sims and one racing sim.

 

I was not even aware it existed till I purchased a Vive Pro 2. Sounds like Vive should do a better job of marketing it outside of their own market.


@DaftnDirect wrote:

I hope that'll change within 2 or 3 years, we still need more take-up, pure and simple.


 

Yup. The list of titles - after removing the games I have played and already own - greatly diminishes in terms of anything enticing. Certainly not enough to warrant a monthly fee.

 

Valve has done their best to advertise this service, even to Oculus users. As they often give Oculus users lengthy free trials:

https://www.vrfocus.com/2021/08/own-an-oculus-quest-grab-a-free-month-of-viveport-infinity/

 

I completely respect users like Tom who can take advantage of VivePort and enjoy the variety of VR apps that are on the market today. It's just not for me due to my limited time to enjoy gaming. I am too busy with family, friends, and work. So when I finally have time to load up a game... it has to be something highly compelling so that I can get the most of that limited time.

 

There are few VR games that make it worthwhile (again, once I eliminate everything I have already played). So like you said, we still need more take-up of truly compelling titles.