The reason for subscriptions is because we've applied a debt based financial model to everything. And for whatever reason customers do not understand the model and how bad they're getting screwed.

$100 of one time purchase software is approximately $5-10 per year of recurring revenue. And so if they can convince you that $5 a month is "not bad" then you're effectively outlaying $1000 for the software. In return you do get massive flexibility like, say, using the software for 1 month and then never again.

Some of it is due to inflation, we'd choke if we saw the real capital cost.

a quick google suggests that maybe Black Ops Cold War (2020): Over $700 million in development costs, 30 million copies sold. Thats $23 just in dev, not marketing and distribution, operation of the servers etc. Whereas black ops 3 was about $10 a copy, but sold for $60. Most of us would balk at paying ~$140 for a game, but that's roughly the inflationary pressures.

Anyways long story, I dont like subscriptions either, but I also dont want to lay down $100s on a piece of software I might not use in a month's time, especially if there wasnt a free trial for me to confirm it's not total crap.

The broader question of why companies are able to keep pushing us ever closer to the maximum we’d conceivably be willing to pay for a given good, is probably best answered with “we stopped trust-busting a few decades ago, so competition sucks and keeps getting worse”.

The goal is to collect rent.

Find arbitrary reasons to justify squeezing customers on a regular basis. Customers are treated as assets. Often, but not exclusively, via software based subscriptions.

Because people pay them. If we refused to pay them and bought similar or even worse alternatives out of spite, they wouldn't exist.

Last cycle everyone thought adding an App Store to their product would bring developers out of the wood work to make them money.

Just envy at the big players and hope for that sweet recurring revenue.

The one metric that matters: Annual Recurring Revenue

>Why is everything a subscription these days?

Software showed the world the incredible value of everyone being a renter instead of an owner.

Ironically HN (as an ad for Ycombinator) exists largely to enforce that new paradigm

So that company don't have to make new products to get your money but print money forever, milk the cow to the last drop.

When interest rates were near zero it was necessary for inflation resistant portfolio growth.

If you're serious, it's called rent-seeking behavior, and it is an extractive component of modern financialism.

One solution is to make a law that says it's illegal, and then enforce that law, ideally with harsh penalties so executives and companies can't get away with it.

I hope this helps!