The subscription model is not necessarily the Eldorado, neither for users and their wallets, nor for publishers. Bending Spoons has had the bitter experience: Playond, its subscription gaming service, abruptly closed, the portal app was removed from the App Store just eight months after launch.
The idea was modeled on Apple Arcade: sixty premium games against a monthly tithe, in this case $ 9.99 per month. First problem: it is more expensive than Apple’s service (€ 4.99). Second problem, despite a launch last July, Playond’s communications were not able to take advantage of the advance taken on Apple Arcade to quickly impose the service.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Playond catalog was mainly composed of games that have already rolled their bump (Wonder Blade, Pizza vs Skeletons, Flying Hamster …), without necessarily having the aura of the titles alumni recovered by Game Club, a concurrent service focused on vintage games (at the same price as Apple Arcade).
There were also quite a few technical concerns. The games that users already owned had to continue running without a subscription, but that was not always the case. The increase in titles purchased previously was not necessarily taken into account by Playond.
Following the disappearance of Playond, the games distributed by the service are now available on the App Store for free, until their developers – to whom their creations have been returned – decide what to do with them.
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