Quoted from Spyderturbo007:During the web session yesterday Gary was asked about if Connected would become a monthly subscription service. I have to say, I absolutely loved his answer. It was something along the lines of "Well, not right away, but we won't worry about that until we get everyone connected".
Yep. Steps written on a whiteboard somewhere at Stern:
1) Make people pay for the hardware to connect to our platform. Let's add $200.00 to the BOM whether people want it or not and put it on all future machines. ($. Gets the system in their home, even make a small profit).
2) Require a free Insider account so people can connect and download updates and get fun things like achievements. (No $ yet, but slowly getting them accustomed to the system. See, not scary pinheads! Fun! And what the heck, you already bought the machine for our new high prices, and it comes with the Connect system! It's like we gave it to you for free!!!).
3) Release new gameplay modes locked behind our "full access" paywall. Modest yearly or monthly fee ($$. Beginning of the subscription revenue, looks great on a balance sheet, pull people in a little more, its not that much right?).
4) Slowly jack up the price on the fee to the point where people are paying more than they do for Netflix so they can have "Super Secret Godzilla Stomps A New City" mode. ($$$$$$$. If people bail at this point they lose access to modes they already like! Sucks to be them!)
Great for Stern, maybe okay for operators, blows for home buyers. Whaddya going to do though, the writing is on the wall and has been since they introduced topper DLC.