I first heard about Meta offering a subscription service for games on their VR platforms, Meta Quest+, the other night while looking through the games on my Meta Quest 2 wishlist that were currently on sale. The announcement notification stated that I could sign up for the subscription service for $1 which would offer two games per month and would be set to automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle. I could not find any additional pricing information as far as how much the monthly subscription would cost after the introductory period if it would jump from $1 the first month to $29.99 each month after, and honestly that would not surprise me as a lot of games on the platform run between $14.99 - $39.99.
I would say that maybe 50% of the games available on the OQ2/MQ2 are games like Vader: Immortal, Virtual Virtual Reality, and Accounting+ that last a couple of hours and that is it, although there is some replayability, but sometimes that just feels like an afterthought. Maybe 40% are forever games like Beat Saber, The Climb 2, and Walkabout Minigolf, designed to be played over and over to either beat your high score or play online co-op against other players. I feel like the remaining 10% are a combination of "experiences," both free and paid for like Ann Frank House VR, or Virtual Desktop. There was no indication if the service would only pull games or other paid apps/experiences.
I had other questions that the notification did not seem to answer. Are the games you receive from this subscription program games you keep or do you only have access to them for the month? Is there a backup game(s) if the games offered up that particular month are games that I already purchased before the games were announced or is that subscription fee just eaten up by Meta? If I end my subscription, do I keep the games (see question number 1) or do they immediately disappear once I cancel the subscription? How difficult is it to cancel the subscription? Are we talking Comcast levels of difficulty, and Amazon Prime Subscription levels of confusion, or can it be done with a simple click? I had questions. Questions that needed answers. Thank you, Gandalf.
The Terms of Service from Meta answered a couple of these questions, such as game "ownership" and apparent ease of canceling, but not the all-important question of how much the monthly subscription would cost after the introductory rate. It did say that you could keep access to the games for the life of the subscription and that any games received between the start of the billing cycle and when you cancel are kept in your account "until" the end of that billing cycle. So if you pay for the subscription on July 1st and then cancel on July 5th, you keep the two games for July, Pixel Ripped 1995 and Pistol Whip through the end of the month. Then I wondered if you wanted to buy the games that were included as part of the subscription to keep, would you receive a discount on the full price of the game? I actually would be surprised if that ended up being the case, but it would be really nice if that were to happen. I really don't think it will though.
On Tuesday (June 27th), I read a CNBC article stating the ongoing subscription would be $7.99 a month and very little else in terms of helpful information, although that was the burning question. They did also add though that the two games announced as part of the subscription for August were "Walkabout Mini Golf" and "Mothergunship: Forge" which again brings up my question about what was Meta's plan for games already purchased? And because "Walkabout Minigolf" has several DLC packs containing new courses not part of the base game, if I did not previously own "Walkabout Minigolf" and I buy DLC, what happens after I end my subscription and lose access to those games?
The FAQS on the Meta Quest+ website also answers additional questions like if you already own games on the service. Although even their answer is a little vague in that the service "... was designed to make it valuable for users who may own one of the titles in a specific month of the program." What that means exactly I cannot say, but it comes across as an attempt at diplomatically saying, "Tough."
Honestly, this is a pretty decent deal and one that I am tempted to actually consider. There are a couple of things holding me back. The first is that I really only have time to play the Oculus Quest 2 (Meta Quest 2) a few times a month, being the times I am at home while The Squire is either taking his afternoon nap or after he has gone to bed for the night, which recently has been between 8:45 - 9:45 PM; he doesn't like going to bed when the sun is still up. I guess I could bring the OQ2 to the office and play it there now that I have a new larger office space, I would just have to move a couple chairs and computer screens and then close my door so that no one could see me flailing around like an idiot as I try to saber beats or apparently whip with pistols. The second is the sunk cost fallacy, that whenever I inevitably cancel the subscription, I will lose access to all of the games that I had given money for. I know I could think of it like renting a movie (because I grew up during that era), but I like having access to games that I enjoy playing and this would definitely incentivize me to not buy games because I would already be paying money for VR games, in a sense anyway. It really isn't any different though than the retro games Nintendo makes available through their Nintendo Online subscription because you lose access to those games after you cancel your subscription. More thinking.
The last piece is questioning if I really want to sign up for another subscription service, even if it is only $7.99 a month ($59.99 once annually) after the first introductory month. That, I think, is ultimately what is going to lead me against signing up for the Meta+ service, oddly enough. Not that I currently have a whole lot of time for VR games, but that I could do with one fewer subscriptions to have to worry about. I think.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental
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