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Gamespot Goes to Subscription Model

Posted by michael on from the ask-not-for-whom-the-paypal-tolls dept.

-PS-Sangloth writes "Gamespot, arguably the best video gaming website will expand in July to a pay service(Gamespot Complete). It seems that while review scores will be free, the actual reviews for new PC games will cease to be available to non-payers 7 days after the review was written. This is a real pity, I suspect many PC Gamers, like me, don't have credit cards(or cash), and Gamespot has good, hard, objective reviews. Read what they said at Gamespot Complete."

4 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Um by autopr0n · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you can't afford a couple bucks a month, how can you afford spending $40/50 a month on new PC games?

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    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:Um by 56ker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes but people are reluctant to part with any money at all for content on the web that can be found elsewhere for free. After all you can find other reviews for nothing - but you can't get the games for nothing. However what's to stop people just viewing the google cached page to get around this?

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      Video Game cheats, hints a
  2. Seriously, who will buy? by Beowulf_Boy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Alot of gamers are in college or below, and have no money. I make 6$ an hour, there is no way I would even spend 2$ a month on this subscription service. And I am sure that 99.99% of others agree with me on that. Is that .01% of people who actually pay going to make them more money than the 100% of people that would otherwise just deal with the ads?
    If gamespot charges, now I will just go somewhere else. Until it is a proprietary service, and gamespot only offers it, will I pay. And I still probably won't pay either! This is just like fileplanet. Either pay 50$ a year, or wait in line for an hour. I just run an internet search on the file and get it elsewhere, its not like they are the only ones with it.

  3. Almost there by The+Cat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    sigh... It's almost to the point where the comments can be written with only the headline.

    Myths:

    1. Nobody will pay for content
    2. People don't trust on-line transactions
    3. "I'll never pay for anything on-line"
    4. I don't have a credit card therefore I can't buy anything on-line

    Colloquialisms for "pay" that ALWAYS replace the word "pay" when describing an actual transaction of less than $100:

    1. Plunk down
    2. Shell out
    3. Fork over

    Example: "Before I [colloquialism] [$amount] I want [impossible amount of value]"

    The reality is that the economy of the Internet will include many billions of dollars of purchases, and that these purchases not only will happen but are happening already. If people want to have any influence on this, then they HAVE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS ECONOMY. "Vote with your dollars" appears in almost every group of comments. Fine. Everyone should not abstain when it comes to electronic commerce.

    The Internet costs money. It always has, and it always will. It was never, is not and will never be free as in soda. :)

    These articles are almost always on the same page with "Quake|Everquest|Neverwinter LXVII Almost Here!" and "Will E-books work?" articles, both of which routinely contain at least 200 comments with something along the lines of "Ooooh GIMME! GIMME! GIMME!" and the electronic equivalent of waving a handful of cash in the air.

    The truth:

    1. Free on-line content is only free if your time is worth nothing.

    2. Even on the Internet, you get what you pay for.