Depends on what you consider a subscription and what you consider a purchase. I consider anything DRMed to be a subscription regardless of if it's a monthly expense or not.
For WiiWare (http://www.nintendo.com/wii/wiiware) or Virtual Console (http://www.nintendo.com/wii/virtualconsole) there is no subscription. It's simply like buying something over the Internet using a service like Amazon or whatever, the only difference being that you're doing it through the Wii itself and it's being directly downloaded to the console. Well, except that you have to purchase "Wii Points (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Points)" and then use those to buy stuff instead of just using money directly.
The same is true for the Silver (free) XBox Live membership (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/features/silverage.htm). Yeah, you'd have to have Xbox Live, but Silver is free, if you're not willing to pay for a Gold account. Similar to the Wii, you'd have to have "Microsoft Points (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Points)" first.
I have no personal experience with PSN (http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Network), but I would assume that it's similar to WiiWare and XBLA.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-19 01:46 am (UTC)From:Aww... That means I have to subscribe to some game internet service if I want to get on it?
What crap!!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-19 02:05 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-07-19 06:41 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-07-19 08:26 pm (UTC)From:The same is true for the Silver (free) XBox Live membership (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/features/silverage.htm). Yeah, you'd have to have Xbox Live, but Silver is free, if you're not willing to pay for a Gold account. Similar to the Wii, you'd have to have "Microsoft Points (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Points)" first.
I have no personal experience with PSN (http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Network), but I would assume that it's similar to WiiWare and XBLA.