Tag archive: subscription

Announced by Electronic Arts during an investor call earlier today, the gaming publisher has sold two million copies of Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic and 1.7 million of those gaming consumers have signed up for a subscription to the online role-playing game. However, this number includes all players that are currently taking advantage of the first 30 days of free play-time that comes with the $60 game and does not necessarily mean… Read More

Spotify has relaunched its radio with new an all-new feature set, gently edging itself into territory currently occupied by the likes of Pandora and Sirius XM. In fact, Spotify's CEO Daniel Ek made it quite clear who the company had in its sights with the new radio, describing it as “kind of like Pandora with unlimited skipping and stations,” while on stage at the LeWeb'11 conference this morning. The new version offers… Read More

In order to compete more directly with Twitter, Facebook is launching a method for users to subscribe to an author's updates at the site that published the author's article. Very similar to following a Twitter user, all public updates from that author will appear in the Facebook feed after clicking the subscribe button. This new plug-in can be embedded on any site and is likely most suitable near the author's name on an… Read More

With a publisher in place to launch the subscription model, Apple is offering publishers of multiple iOS games the ability to charge a monthly subscription fee to access a specific amount of games. Seattle-based Big Fish Games is the first company to sign up for the service according to a Bloomberg article. The company is developing an iPad application that will eventually charge subscribers $6.99 a month to access dozens of games formatted for… Read More

The world of massively multiplayer online games is full of fantasy and Sci-Fi role-playing games. Years ago, however, things weren't like this. In 2003, Sony tried something different and released an MMO first-person shooter. PlanetSide was essentially a giant war, with three army factions battling for supremacy of the many regions of a world. It had voice commands, flying vehicles, RPG-like weapon upgrades, different armor classes, and a… Read More

The king of of pay-to-play massively multiplayer online RPGs is becoming a free-to-play game, kind of. Leaving behind the 14-day free trial promotion it has used to attract new users since its launch in 2004, Activision Blizzard is now allowing gamers play World of Warcraft until they reach level 20. World of Warcraft has always had a 14-day free trial for new users, but Activision Blizzard has, after seven years on the market, lifted the time… Read More

Not wanting to feel left behind in the digital age, many publishers of long-running print magazines have been keen to jump on the e-publishing bandwagon in an attempt to find a new audience, or at the least, in the hope of not losing any of its existing readers. But there's one high profile publisher who is deciding to sit this one out. Indeed, he can't see what all the fuss is about. Talking to AdAge, the founder of Rolling Stone… Read More

The publishing world's migration to the iPad continued this week with Time Inc., the largest magazine publisher, reaching a deal with Apple to release free versions of its magazines to print subscribers, reports the Wall Street Journal. The agreement could signal that a compromise has been reached between Apple and disgruntled publishers, who have called the gadget company's subscription policy unfair and overbearing. As of this… Read More

Despite gloomy predictions about its launch, RIM's PlayBook debuted to surprisingly good sales. But it’s about to suffer a setback, now that Hulu has blocked the tablet’s access to its content. Apparently, the streaming service doesn’t look too kindly on RIM’s deferring to the mobile browser instead of relying on apps, so it cut the infant device off entirely. Hulu’s new subscription service, Hulu Plus, directly markets itself to the… Read More

Federal regulators have begun to scrutinize the terms of Apple's newly-announced subscription feature for apps, sources familiar with the matter tell the Wall Street Journal. The US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have begun preliminary investigations into whether Apple has violated antitrust laws by requiring app publishers to sell their content subscriptions through the iTunes App Store, and for charging then a… Read More

Google announced today the launch of One Pass, a new payment system that allows online and mobile publishers to charge for their digital content. Using One Pass, publishers can “set their own prices and terms,” says Google on its official company blog. This “open and flexible” policy stands in stark contrast to Apple's subscription service, announced Tuesday, which some say may violate antitrust laws due to… Read More

Apple announced Tuesday a new subscription service that allows publishers of any “content-based apps” to offer their customers recurring payment plans. The announcement comes just weeks after the unveiling of News Corp's The Daily, the first-ever iPad-only newspaper, which uses the subscription service. The subscription deal doesn't just include magazine and newspaper apps, however. Apps that offer music and video content… Read More

Decking out your iPhone Smurf house may cost more than you thought. The Washington Post reports that an 8-year-old girl named Madison amassed a $1,400 bill from apple for decorating her home in Smurf's Village, an iPhone and iPad game by Capcom. Though the game is targeted at young children, it lets players cheat their way toward faster rewards by using real money to purchase bountiful amounts of Smurfberries, a valuable currency within… Read More

Not satisfied with regular Hulu Plus? Well, how about paying for more Hulu services? The WSJ reports that the television streaming Website has decided to forgo its rumored initial public offering (IPO) and is instead seeking more private financing and more subscription services so it can better compete with Netflix. Hulu–a joint venture between ABC, NBC, and Fox–planned to use an IPO to raise the funds it needs to secure more… Read More

It seems like $7.99 – $9.99 is the magic price for streaming content these days. Both Netflix (movies) and Hulu (TV) recently announced unlimited plans for $7.99 and now OnLive, their video game equivalent, is offering unlimited use of its service for a monthly fee of $9.99. The service, named OnLive PlayPack, has 14 games at the moment, including Prince of Persia, Lego Batman, Fear 2, and World of Goo. These games can be played for free… Read More