- Subscription services have taken the gaming industry by storm!
- The effects trickle down to mobile gaming as well.
- Slow but steady changes await.
In the past few years, subscription services have taken the gaming industry as a whole by storm, a storm so unmistakably huge that entire game studios have started restructuring and developing their games around these services.
Naturally, that trend gradually transitioned into mobile gaming as well, in the form of Netflix gaming, Apple Arcade, and Google Play Pass. While subscription services in mobile gaming are still at an early stage, the ripple effects they created are still far from insignificant.
Like any drastic change in any industry, subscription services in mobile gaming have also inspired and instilled some subtle shifts within this industry. That’s precisely why we are going to discuss the subtle yet significant impact of subscription services in the mobile gaming industry.
A diversion in the usual bread and butter
This is a more common shift in gaming behaviour that is to be expected by the introduction of a subscription service. Having a vast library from different genres available at the fingertips from the get-go definitely inspires diversion in taste, and which in turn promotes more obscure and unique titles to the surface, and maybe even introduces gamers to their new favourite genre.
Games with unique genre-bending and unapologetically stylistic gameplay, like Sayonara Wildhearts, games with heartfelt stories and beautiful yet engaging premises, such as the award-winning adventure Spiritfarer, find a new audience through these subscription services, which benefits both the developers and gamers alike.
An introduction to the world of premium games
In the mobile gaming sphere, premium games are somewhat behind in the race compared to their free-to-play counterparts, and this is by nature of the mobile gaming market since its inception.
However, Premium games are now gaining more and more traction by reducing the price of admission to a monthly subscription price. Once you’re in and quality premium games start to crash at your shore, riding the waves of the subscription service, you develop a change in your habits.
This change also somewhat inspires a change in spending habits and gradually takes a turn towards submitting to the price of admission into premium games, which opens up an expensive yet alluring new world of quality titles without ads, interruptions, and timed mechanics, things that are a necessity for free-to-play games.
The industry shifts with the consumers
The industry thrives and survives for, and with, its consumers, so naturally a change in consumer habits also demands a change in the industry. In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of AAA games ported over to mobile, including titles like Resident Evil 4 Remake, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Death Stranding, and more.
While these wildly popular titles are not on any subscription service as of the time of writing, the fact that developers are porting these hugely ambitious titles to mobile is an indication of changes that are the passive effects of subscription services altering the spending habits of consumers.
Exclusivity in subscription services
This is an extremely rare occurrence, generally games available through subscription services are games that are already available to purchase on mobile devices. However, sadly, there is one major and, in my opinion, excellent exception to this rule.
Hades, an excellent narrative rogue-like developed by the talented folks at Supergiant Games released on mobile for the first time through Netflix gaming on March 19, 2024, and naturally, it took the gaming world by storm as this was arguably a perfect game to carry in your pocket to hop in and out whenever you like.
However, since it was only available through Netflix gaming, it has not been available to play on mobile devices since it left the subscription service on July 1, 2025. This raises questions about subscription services in mobile gaming. Will this become the norm? Will ports of games available only through subscription services become lost to time after they depart from the said service?
The assimilation of a new segment
Changes are sometimes exciting, scary, and exhilarating, but the industry always adapts; that is indeed one of the most fascinating aspects that can be observed by being an active part of the industry wether as a developer, a journalist, and/or a gamer. The dawn of subscription services in mobile gaming is bound shift the industry and sway it wider than we’ve seen so far, but so far it has been a welcome change.
The increase in accessibility to premium and AAA titles, the change in spending habits, and the rare exclusives are without a sliver of doubt going to cause major turns in the ship that is this industry, on the vast ocean of a market, but we hope that this turn gets us closer to enjoying more scrumptious titles on mobile.
What are your thoughts on gaming subscription services? Let us know in the comment section below!
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