Star Wars Outlaws does a great job upselling Ubisoft+ subscriptions

Star Wars Outlaws is doing a good job upselling Ubisoft's own game subscription service.

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Ubisoft's new Star Wars Outlaws game looks like one of the most authentic adventures in the sci-fi franchise, but it's still a product that's very much bound by business decisions. Like all of Ubisoft's new releases, Outlaws will release day one on the $18/month Ubisoft+ Premium subscription service.

The value proposition is pretty high. As a consumer, would you rather pay $18 to play a game for a month, or pay $70 to buy it? Sure you don't get to own the game with the sub option, and whether or not this is a good fit totally depends on your habits, but that value is what makes subscriptions so enticing. The choice between full game and subscription gets even harder to make when you bump up the game's price to $130; the Star Wars Outlaws Ultimate Edition bundle with its season pass and variety of extras retails for $130, but you can get access for $18 with Ubisoft+ Premium.

Editor's Note

• The "cannibalization" effects of subscriptions replacing game sales are unlikely to be dramatic for Ubisoft. The company makes most of its revenues from consoles, and Ubisoft+ Premium only exists on Xbox and PC. Xbox has a smaller userbase than PlayStation and Xbox gamers are more tailored to subscriptions thanks to Game Pass.
• The Ubisoft+ Premium subscription does not exist on PlayStation 5, so Ubisoft will not be affected by any kind of sub replacement on that platform.
• It's also worth mentioning that Ubisoft has its own PC games launcher/storefront so the replacement factor will be felt harder here, but the potential positive uplift of subscription will also be felt too.

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This is the kind of business tactic used in so-called value-oriented multi-game subscription services (a term coined by the FTC) thrive off of. Buying a game costs more, but leasing it temporarily can cost a lot less. In this case, Outlaws' Ultimate Edition has an 86% price discount with 1 month of Ubisoft+ Premium.

The price discrepancy is also a clear example of what both FTC and Microsoft legal counsel refer to as "cannibalization," or a potentially negative affect where game sales have been reduced. This is only negative if 1) it's unintentional, and 2) if the bet is badly skewed and unprofitable.

In short, this is more of a replacement effect. Instead of only buying games outright, consumers are starting to buy into the subscription model and pay less upfront but potentially more over time.

Subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass, EA Play, Ubisoft+, and PlayStation Plus are all making a bet against the traditional buy-to-play model. There's potentially more revenue longer-term if consumers can be pulled into the service and become "sticky" (another word for "engaged" or "invested", referring to you being stuck to the platform for various reasons including game access, game saves, community, etc).

The bet can be costly, though, and disrupt internal metrics and the industry at large to unknown degrees. But since these services still exist, they must be profitable or at the very least be seen as a worthwhile bet.

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Another key point to make regarding Star Wars Outlaws' Ultimate Edition is that it comes with two expansion packs that release after launch. So ideally, Ubisoft would want you to buy into Ubisoft+ Premium at $18/month and keep paying monthly until each of the DLCs come out.

No matter how you squeeze it, though, the price-conscious gamer is also betting on two things: Ubisoft to reduce the price of Outlaws a few months after launch, and being able to adequately sample the service in order to play select games. Even if you buy 1 month ($18), 2 months ($36), or even 3 months ($54) assuming you'll sub for the base game, cancel, and the re-up for each individual expansion, it's still far cheaper to go the Ubisoft+ Premium route and 1) not buy the base game for $70 and 2) especially not buy the Ultimate Edition for $130.