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Bandai Namco Executive Sees Subscription Model for Video Games as a Potential ‘Threat’

Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Digital, and Content has said that he sees the rise is video game subscription models like EA Access as potential “threats” because the value in the end is “too low” for further investment into future content.

Speaking to MCV, Hervé Hoerdt, said:

Subscriptions are more of a threat, that’s for sure. Because the business model behind subscriptions will be based on two things: the number of hours played on your game compared to the total hours people played, and the number of games played compared to the total number of games. So, in the value chain, we see a lot of cascading and the value in the end is too low for us to be able to invest further in the content. So that’s a threat we see. But otherwise, generally speaking, it’s exciting, it’s appealing, it’s more opportunities going forwards.

Hoerdt added that Bandai Namco is interested in exploring streaming, and that there’s a common misconception that streaming services are based on subscription models, which isn’t necessarily the case.

I think there’s a misconception: streaming doesn’t mean subscription. It’s not mandatory. And we’ve put some games there, we’ve made some tests, we have Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 [coming to Stadia] but we also have more projects in the pipeline. Not on the first wave, but there will be three or four waves in the coming years so we’ll have some titles then and I think this is important for us to make this bet and to see how it reacts.

Hoerdt also said that Bandai Namco aims to release its games on as many platforms as possible, and that exclusivity is not a part of the company’s vision.

[Source: MCV]

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