Will your new games start requiring a subscription?

So we already have Xbox live, Playstation +, and other various services where basically you pay a company money to use services that should arguably be free or mostly get stuff for free you never would've payed for anyways (as much as I enjoy and tout the value of PS+, at least half the games I've downloaded for free get little to no playtime, but it's still worth it IMHO). And now EA is really getting into the whole subscription game with their EA Sports Season Ticket, which essentially allows early access to games, dlc discounts and vague "premium content", whatever that means (you know, like the tip videos & cheats EA charged you for previously that should've been free to begin with). Now, there is definitely arguable value here. DLC can cost as much or more than the initial purchase, so for somebody who wants to get all or most of it that might be worth it alone (especially since it covers all of EA Sports, not just one game).

However, I think the realistic and likely worry is this will cause a have/have not situation that may worsen if more companies go in on it. There may be only a handful of mega-publishers these days, but everyone's trying to make that cash flow for as long as possible, that's already why DLC exists, getting you to pay more for a product you've already bought. Sometimes it's great stuff to help extend and add value but almost as often it's something that seems like a cheap cash grab or something that should've been in the game in the first place. Right now its perks like early access and discounts, which if somebody wants to pay a premium for, more power to them, it's really hard to argue how that's going to affect the guy brown bagging it to work so he can keep feeding his gaming habit and can't really afford to subscribe to all these premium services. But at some point it might become more than that. Stat boosts? Extra powerful in-game items? Online access and multi-player? The ending? Sure it's a slippery slope but we already have certain games that require constant online access to work even if they don't include online play, is other seemingly mandatory content next? I'm honestly not sure. It seems unlikely, but then You'd think no one would pay money just for the ability to go online with their system when the competitors allow you to do that for free....

That's all for today, sorry for no post over the weekend, I just honestly had a pretty bad case of writer's block. I should have another post up tomorrow or Thursday. In the meantime here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK:  Tower Heist