Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is letting a video-game company offer its titles by subscription on the iPad, expanding the role of a feature typically used by magazine and newspaper publishers.Big Fish Games, a Seattle-based game publisher, won approval from Apple to become the first to offer users access to dozens of titles for $6.99 a month. Until now, games have only been available one at a time, requiring users to download individual applications.

Charging subscribers a fee to play every month is reminiscent of the way games worked on cell phones in the bad old days before Apple launched the iPhone. I, for one, am not happy to see this development.

Update, 3:49 PM 11/23: The Big Fish Games title that uses subscriptions – the first such title – has been pulled, according to MacNN.There is no explanation for the decision.