• Beautifully summarized.

    I think another factor will emerge: people are starting to realize that they’re paying $60 to rent a game. They don’t own it, and the game developer can shut it down at any time, and even if they don’t, it probably requires some online access for something, and the game stops working once the developer turns off those servers.

    I don’t think we’ll see a revolt, but companies will be forced through competition to allow rental models with less or no up-front cost. I think people will simply become less willing to pay $60 for a rental. At this point, I don’t know what happens to development studios, because they need seed funding to get to market. I think it’s already happening; as a very casual gamer, most of what I hear from the industry is pure-play game studios shutting down, or being acquired by corporations like Sony or Microsoft, who have other revenue streams they can redirect into speculative game development.