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There’s a new premium gaming subscription in town but what does that mean for players?

Bandai Namco games like Pac-Man now available in the all-you-can-eat GameStore

There’s a new premium gaming subscription in town but what does that mean for players?
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Video game legend Bandai Namco just made a deal with mobile game subscription service GameStore. Included in the roster are multiple Pac-Man offerings like Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Friends, and Pac-Man Championship Edition. In addition to Pac-Man titles, Bandai Namco mainstays Galaga and Kart Rally have been added with many more games expected to follow. Cool, but what exactly does that mean?

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GameStore's a mobile game subscription service developed by Snakebyte and launched last week. It has more than 400 games available to play on and offline for Android devices - with no ads and no in-app transactions. When you download the app, you can begin playing any of the included games straight onto your Android device. This is a subscription service, so it's not a completely free lunch: £7.99 per month gets you the all-you-can-eat no-strings-attached deal.

Of course, gaming subscription services aren’t a new concept. Consoles have had programmes like this for ages, for instance PlayStation’s PS+ and Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. Hatch, a mobile game subscription service spun off from heavyweights Rovio, offers a similar business model to GameStore. Download the app and you can play hundreds of games for Android in an instant. Hatch recently added games from Square Enix.

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While GameStore is already available for download and play, Hatch is still in its early stages, with more countries being added all the time. Like Netflix or Hulu, Hatch lets players stream games rather than downloading them to their phone taking up precious storage space.

When it comes to mobile game subscription services it's all about content. Quality games from respected developers are what makes customers interested. The Bandai Namco deal with GameStore and Hatch’s recent partnership with Square Enix go to show that mobile subscription services are shaping up to go toe-to-toe with console and PC game subscription services.

Will these subscription services change how you consume mobile games? Is the long-fabled "Netflix of games" soon to become a reality, and will you be on board? You know where the comment section is...

Ria Teitelbaum
Ria Teitelbaum
Ria is our newest editorial intern hailing from America. After her dreams of becoming Sailor Moon were ruined, she decided to write about games instead. She also studies art history... sorta kinda.