Subscriptions have been available to magazine and newspaper publishers but now Apple Inc. is now opening the market to game publishers. Is this something IT Tech Support providers need to know about? Probably not but there’s plenty of “gamers” out there that are very happy now.
Big Fish Games, a Seattle-based game publisher, won approval from Apple to become the first to offer users access to dozens of titles for $6.99 a month. Until now, games have only been available one at a time, requiring users to download individual applications.
The founder of Big Fish, Paul Thelen, saw an opportunity to offer an “all-you-can-eat” service that lets players jump in and out of different games without having to make a bunch of downloads. Who doesn’t think that’s a good thing. Nothing worries IT Tech staff more than downloads. “So far, game-subscription services have a mixed record of success, the popularity of the iPad, along with the easy payment method provided by Apple’s App Store, will make the offering attractive”, says Thelen.
The setup is similar to Netflix Inc.’s streaming application for the iPad. Subscribers can get unlimited access to games such as “Mystery Case Files” and the “Mahjong Towers” series from inside the Big Fish app.
The door is now open and game publishers are going to be knocking on Apple’s door to get in on this. Let us know if your excited about this. With more and more employees taking their smart devices to work with them this might be something that causes a concern for productivity managers in your company. Just saying.
If you would like to read the entire Bloomberg Business article, just click here.
