Ubisoft,

Will you please consider alternatives in addition to subscription models? A subscription model works great for those who will play every month. There are others of us who might play sporadically - maybe get busy with life and not touch it for 3 months, then play daily for the next month. Knowing that I have to pay for those unused months is a huge turnoff (and for me, means I'll probably never leave RS2014, or when I do, l will look first at other online learning systems with a straight purchase offer).

Here are two possible alternatives:

• Offer a "VIP Lifetime Purchase" for a flat rate. If you are unsure about giving this option, dip your toe in by offering this as a limited time presale-only offer.
• Configure your subscription billing so people are only billed in months where they log into RS+ (or maybe, login for some period, say 4+ minutes). Yes, that will impact your model of steady, repeat revenue, but it will also bring in a lot of people like me who won't otherwise subscribe your product. In other words, you have way more top-line potential, with the variable (monthly utilization) being something largely in your control - just be sure it's a compelling, quality product that makes us all choose to log in every month.

@rubyspop You can subscribe one month at a time.

Hey there, rubyspop!

I appreciate you writing this up for us to review! I'll share this with the team for them to give it a read as well!

@rubyspop You can still buy Rocksmith2014 and DLC on steam.

• Configure your subscription billing so people are only billed in months where they log into RS+ (or maybe, login for some period, say 4+ minutes). Yes, that will impact your model of steady, repeat revenue, but it will also bring in a lot of people like me who won't otherwise subscribe your product. In other words, you have way more top-line potential, with the variable (monthly utilization) being something largely in your control - just be sure it's a compelling, quality product that makes us all choose to log in every month.

I would buy this option for my daughter, she didn't get into RS2014, mostly for lack of music she likes. This model would enable her to enter into it at her own pace without billing me more than she actually uses.

Another option, as a parrent I would like to manage the subscription for my kids from my own account. It would be great to set up so that billing for my kids happens together with billing for my own subscription.

@ubidork I hope you aren't serious.

In this history of apps, there has never been an app worth constantly subscribing and unsubscribing. That's the kind of hubris that kills projects before they ever leave the starting blocks.

@pedietz Absolutely. I love RS2014. That's actually my point - sometimes I have time to play it, sometimes I don't. With RS2014, there is no subscription "pressure" making me feel like i need to get my money's worth.
If RS+ went live today with a monthly subscription, I would definitely stick to the RS2014 I already own (and then buy the occasional DLC).

@ubidork Thanks.

For a comparison (if you have someone old enough to remember/find it!), look at the launch of LOTRO. I was fed up with monthly subscriptions to MMOs, but they offered a ($150? maybe $250, I forget) prelaunch VIP. Best deal ever all the way around They got all my money upfront months before launch. I played for a few months and then felt no guilt about dropping in and out every few months/years ever since.

Lotro is a nice example of having a hybrid model. Even though it's free to play, you can still get a monthly subscription for VIP services which grant access to most content and some other quality of life improvements. As an alternative, it allows you to purchase each piece of content individually without paying a monthly subscription.

This could easily translate into 'unlimited DLC' for subscribers, subscription only inlay's and other graphical goodies. On the other hand, people without subscription could buy individual songs like RS2014.

@rubyspop Or is it going to be part of the full Ubisoft Connect+ Library where you just pay a yearly fee and you have access to all of a set group of titles?

That way if your mood strikes that you don't want to play Rocksmith+ 24/7 you can venture off into something more entertaining instead of technical for those periods and circle back around to it when you are in the mood to work on musical skills.

For myself I feel I would be one who would be accepting of the $100 a year price point if the program is somewhat decent, but I can see the point of many who have a hard time justifying it's worth at more than 5 or 10 bucks a month.

Many times I have had to buy and pay for Rocksmith and a cable out of my own pocket and spend hours teaching someone how to get it setup on their gaming or computer system just to get them started with it... because it has not been the most forgiving interface.

I like you're suggestion, and hopefully after everyone's comments Ubisoft can find many different solutions to make it reasonable enough that it can sustain itself..

I have been wondering about the subscription price, is  $100 a year the real price of RS + ? I am in the UK so i am not sure what price they will be but to convert $ to £ would be something like £73 a year.
The problem for me is when i used RS 2014 i could already play the guitar and found myself using it to learn new songs at home and have the backing tracks and tones for them songs which was great for the price, I would say i also like the challenging aspect to improve your score of the songs, but I never looked at Rocksmith for me as a game or a learning tool to learn to play the guitar. I don't think it will be over priced if your going to get the benefits of learning to play the guitar plus everything else , but for me i feel i will be paying for a lot of other things that i don't care about with in this subscription.

@darrenking2013 did you try the RS+ beta? Tones and amp models were "coming soon". So hopefully that aspect will be there for you. You can assume the only amp models and tones will be the hand created ones... aka the weekly released ones the Notetrackers make.

the rest are midi so they wont know that the guitar uses a Tubescreamer, etc.