Online sub

Subscription to play online

You pay a yearly fee just to play online with the game you already own.

Watch · Fine if you understand it

A fee to use the multiplayer in a game you've already bought is fair if it covers real servers, but it is also a permanent toll.

What you're actually buying

Permission to use online multiplayer (often bundled with cloud saves and a rotating set of free games) on a console, on top of the games themselves. Without it, the online part of a game you've paid for is switched off.

How it works

It is a toll for infrastructure, not content. Microsoft built Xbox Live as real server infrastructure, so it recouped the cost with a subscription layered on top of the $60 disc. The lobby itself became part of the product: Halo 2 was the most-played Xbox Live game for almost two years, and Call of Duty 4 turned the login into a career ladder of ranks, perks and prestige that kept millions paying to stay logged in. Sony resisted, using free online play as a PS3 selling point, until the PS4 made PlayStation Plus mandatory for online play in 2013. The subscription outlived any single game.

When it's fine

When you would play online regularly anyway and the yearly price is clear before you buy the game.

Where it came from

Sega had shown online play could be free: Phantasy Star Online let Dreamcast owners play together at no charge through its free DreamArena network. Xbox Live launched on 15 November 2002 with a $49.99 Starter Kit (headset plus a 12-month subscription card), reportedly selling 150,000 in the first week against a target of 100,000 subscribers for the whole year. Halo 2 (9 November 2004) took $125 million in US and Canadian sales on launch day, more than the opening receipts of Spider-Man 2 or The Matrix Reloaded, and stayed Xbox Live's most-played game until Gears of War overtook it almost two years later. PlayStation Plus launched on 29 June 2010 at $50 a year as an optional add-on. The PS4 (November 2013) made it mandatory for online multiplayer at $49.99 a year, matching Xbox Live Gold. The model then grew into whole-library subscriptions.

Historical prices and revenues are in US dollars at the time unless marked A$.

By the numbers

Xbox Live launched on 15 November 2002; the Starter Kit (headset plus 12-month subscription card) sold for $49.99, and reportedly 150,000 kits sold in the first week against a target of 100,000 subscribers for the year.

Microsoft News (Source)

Halo 2 took $125 million in US and Canadian sales on launch day (9 November 2004), more than Spider-Man 2 or The Matrix Reloaded, and stayed Xbox Live's most-played game until Gears of War overtook it almost two years later.

CNN Money / Gamasutra