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TETRIS Finally Gets Subscription Model / Monthly Fee

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Barrett2

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EA Mobile and The Tetris Company have launched a new Tetris game for iOS devices, which features a paid subscription option for accessing exclusive content and accelerating players' rank progress.

The $0.99 game (introductory rate), which replaces EA Mobile's previous Tetris game on Apple's App Store, debuts a "Marathon One Touch Mode" control scheme designed for touchscreen gameplay on iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.

It also adds Tetris Log, a feature that offers players fresh challenges, tracks their progress clearing lines across multiple devices, and assigns them a Tetris Rank -- all powered by Electronic Arts' digital distribution and DRM platform Origin.

Another notable addition is T-Club, an "elite Tetris fan club" requiring a $2.99 monthly or $29.99 annual fee. Subscribers receive exclusive discounts and content, premium Tetris Log challenges, and a booster for progressing their Tetris Rank faster.

This effort to introduce a subscription element to a major non-MMO franchise is reminiscent of Activision's new Call of Duty: Elite service, which features free/premium memberships for stat tracking and other features for CoD: Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops.

Take-Two Interactive's chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick also recently commented on CoD Elite and game subscriptions to Reuters, saying "I've said for years the holy grail of our business is to take a packaged goods release and turn it into a subscription model."
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VIDEOGAMES!!
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It's about time I can pay a subscription for Tetris
"I've said for years the holy grail of our business is to take a packaged goods release and turn it into a subscription model."
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That does not sound like something I want at all
 
Another notable addition is T-Club, an "elite Tetris fan club" requiring a $2.99 monthly or $29.99 annual fee. Subscribers receive exclusive discounts and content, premium Tetris Log challenges, and a booster for progressing their Tetris Rank faster.
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Pretend to be better at Tetris than you actually are! Only $3 a month! That's the price of ONE latte!
 
now i'll pwn all my opponents by using the last man standing perk thanks to double xp earned by subscribing to tetris elite while drinking mountain dew
 
I know some level headed posters will come in here and tell us to stop being Chicken Little's or whatever, but that is one of the most horrible discouraging things I have heard about this industry in a long time.

Actually

The sky is falling when they actually start MAKING A PROFIT from this shit. And they will. I promise they will. Its so horrible.

(I'm part of the problem, The Tron Bonne DLC costume was too amazing to resist.)
 
rank 1: you are good at the game, good job!
rank 2: woah, can you do that again please? that was amazing!
rank 3: Can I be your friend? I want to brag to everyone I know you
rank 4: Whatever gender you are, I want you
Rank 5: seeing you play leaves me no regrets in my life, I can die happy
Rank 6: Lol just kidding, you aren't that good. Thanks for the money though.
 
Hmmpphh. I was guessing the Onion, not Gamasutra.

Strauss Zelnick said:
"I've said for years the holy grail of our business is to take a packaged goods release and turn it into a subscription model."
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Can't wait to subscribe to every game ever made.
 
Next step? Micro transactions! Want an extra number of those sweet l pieces? Buy a pack of 10 for just 2,99$!!
 
Corto said:
Next step? Micro transactions! Want an extra number of those sweet l pieces? Buy a pack of 10 for just 2,99$!!
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Is it weird that i can imagine them doing that?

Like, you have a few lines going but with a gap perfect for a I piece. An option comes up to pay $0.10/£0.10/Euro 0.10 for one. :|
 
"I've said for years the holy grail of our business is to take a packaged goods release and turn it into a subscription model."

I know its been said already but this quote is amazing.
 
This quote from a Scribblenauts dev just becomes truer and truer every day. As in executives (like the Take-Two guy) don't see games from the same point of view as everyone who loves games does.

What would you say worries you the most?

It doesn't worry me as much as bothers me that a lot of people on the executive and decision making side of publishers doesn’t actually play games, nor have they ever developed a game. This wouldn't be a problem normally, but a lot of the time those people start telling you how to make games. Now, this isn’t a blanket statement, of course some execs did come from dev backgrounds and some love playing video games.

Anyway this kind of boggles my mind, why are you in this industry if you don’t love games? Think of it like the military, every general went through training. It might have been through officer candidate school or boot camp, but they all know the basics of fighting. How to shoot and field strip a firearm, how to dig a foxhole, how to work as a team: the basics! Thus when they are at a high level and give orders they at least have an understanding of what it’s like to be in the trenches. In game development a lot of misunderstanding happens with what’s feasible in a proper schedule and not insane crunch or what’s fun so you’re not just reacting and saying, “Well, Call of Duty does it, so throw it in our RPG!”
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The good thing about every game eventually turning into a subscription-based model is that the next logical step is "everything free" (when the industry finally collapses).

Look at MMORPGS.

Or - and that's the pessimistic and realistic take on the subject - no more games.
 
The only thing that makes me feel better about all this is that there's already so many games out there, that once shit like this kills the industry dead, I'll still have enough to play to last me for years.
 
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