I can hardly wait for the moment when the subscription no longer bows to the games - but the games bow to the subscription.
How many more years until we reach the "Netflix of gaming"? Complete with all the familiar downsides from video streaming: cheaply produced mass-market junk that exists purely to generate playtime, not quality. Games slapped together to feed the algorithm, not the players.
What happens when games are no longer art, expression, or innovation - but just content? Just filler. Trend-chasing, genre-recycling, monthly releases churned out and buried just as fast. As long as they keep users entertained - or better: subscribed.
And then come the constant adjustments. Games that aren't fully thought through, but are "tweaked" continuously because some TikTok trend demands it. Characters, stories, even core mechanics get "optimized" to go viral - not to be better.
Consistency? Depth? A coherent identity? All sacrificed on the altar of the next KPI.
Imagine playing a strong narrative game, only to find the story rewritten overnight because "act two didn't retain enough engagement." Or PvP systems reworked because some demographic converts better with more "instant rewards."
Creative decisions are replaced by dashboards. It's no longer design by vision, but design by data.
And of course: microtransactions stop being optional and become core to the subscription model. Why design a fair, self-contained game when you can keep players hooked with daily login bonuses, battle passes, and artificial grind? Long-term engagement through dopamine, not design.
The darkest outcome: a gaming landscape full of interchangeable titles that differ only in skin, not in soul. No risky projects. No quirky, rough-edged indies. Just "content" - calculated, smoothed out, anonymous.
At that point, will gaming still mean something - or just become a service we consume, forget, and replace?