Subscription Gaming

Disney considers advertising on Disney+, GoodRx grows to 1M, Apple and UnitedHealthcare offer approx. 3M members 1 year of Apple Fitness+ at no cost.

BMW explores in-car subscriptions for smart, connected services; Sony sued by game developer for royalties; and Cash App might be worth more than Square.

ICYMI, this week was full of big news and performances. The Super Bowl, the Dow Jones, the Winter Olympics and Trump's tweets are among the hot topics of the day. Meanwhile, subscription companies did not disappoint with news of their own, including big subscription numbers from HBO Now, the pending launch of a subscription app for ESPN, and a confirmed launch date for Nintendo Online. Also this week, we heard about magazine subscription scams, email scams and streaming music companies battling for the top spot.

Top subscription companies including Spotify and Match Group, join the Coalition for App Fairness, to force Apple to change its policies.

Last week Apple updated its App Store review guidelines to address subscriptions, SiriKit and iMessage apps. Developers who want to take advantage of the expanded categories for subscriptions need to take note of the guidelines for auto-renewable subscriptions. This includes specific guidelines laid out by Apple as well as its best practices which include the duration of the free trial periods and the change in rate structure. We've covered it all.

Last week Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), the third largest publicly-traded company in the world, reported financials for the period ended December 31, 2016, the company's second quarter of fiscal year 2017. The company reported revenue of $24.1 billion (GAAP), a slight increase over revenue of $23.8 billion reported for the same period last year. Other highlights for Q2 of fiscal year 2017 include operating income of $6.2 billion (GAAP), net income of $5.2 billion (GAAP) and diluted earnings per share of $0.66 (GAAP).

This was a big week for subscription companies with news that Mastercard is waffling on its policy for auto-renewals, Sony is being fined 2 million euros for misleading customers about the PS Plus subscription and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hints that Microsoft 365 may offer a consumer subscription. Also, Plex considers a subscription streaming service, Jeep explores subscriptions and car sharing, and Golf gets a new look and a boost in ad sales.

GameStop is launching Power Pass, an unlimited, pre-owned game rental subscription, reports The Verge. For $60 for six months, gamers can rent a used game at their local GameStop, enjoy unlimited play of that game, return it, and check out another game. Gamers can only rent one game at a time, however. Several sources have said that, at the end of a rental period, subscribers can keep the last game they checked out.

This week, some subscription business has continued as normal, while others has been a reaction to the coronavirus outbreak. In the business-as-usual category, Tesla...

Apple reported record revenue of $81.4B in the third quarter of fiscal 2021, a 36% increase year-over-year.