Can a subscription damage a game’s reputation?
I attended DevGamm in Belgrade this week, and it made me want to discuss another tricky question about subscriptions in mobile games.
A subscription is a long-term agreement with the player. The developer commits to providing a certain set of benefits in exchange for recurring payments. And if you remove something important from a subscription they’ve already paid for, the player will understandably ask: what the hell?
That’s why changes to a subscription need to be thought through in advance: what happens to existing subscribers, how you tell them about the new terms, and what you offer those who are no longer happy with them.
The most absurd thing is to ignore complaints or try to tell players that nothing has changed and the removed content was supposedly never part of the subscription. After that, the issue goes beyond the changes themselves, whatever the reasons behind them. Players start questioning whether they can trust the developer.
With one-time purchases of time-limited access, developers have much more freedom. Once the paid period ends, the player sees the new offer and decides for themselves whether it works for them.
How do you handle changes to subscriptions in your games?
I attended DevGamm in Belgrade this week, and it made me want to discuss another tricky question about subscriptions in mobile games.
A subscription is a long-term agreement with the player. The developer commits to providing a certain set of benefits in exchange for recurring payments. And if you remove something important from a subscription they’ve already paid for, the player will understandably ask: what the hell?
That’s why changes to a subscription need to be thought through in advance: what happens to existing subscribers, how you tell them about the new terms, and what you offer those who are no longer happy with them.
The most absurd thing is to ignore complaints or try to tell players that nothing has changed and the removed content was supposedly never part of the subscription. After that, the issue goes beyond the changes themselves, whatever the reasons behind them. Players start questioning whether they can trust the developer.
With one-time purchases of time-limited access, developers have much more freedom. Once the paid period ends, the player sees the new offer and decides for themselves whether it works for them.
How do you handle changes to subscriptions in your games?