Gaming Critical Hit: Everything is Free

From a business point of view, turning a game whose sales are probably dwindling by now, into a game which produces a constant revenue stream is a great idea. As long as Microtransactions generate enough revenue to pay for the costs of hosting content and paying developers, TF2 will be as strong as ever.

 

Its all down to Garcia Hotspur.

 

The Champions Online free to play version appears to have the same initial content as the pay to play version so far. It has been restructured a touch but is essentially the same. There were always micro transactions in the game, it's just a touch more evident now.

Going in to more detail would be hitting "wall of text" territory but it's well worth a look. It either works for you or it doesn't but this time it costs nothing other than bandwidth to check it out.

 

I personally don't like it but you have to admire free to play for the brilliant marketing strategy it really is.
The only problem I notice with it is the rift that sually develops between free and paid users because of the imbalances created by the "paid" content. But of course that's the whole point, so hard to get around it...

 

World of Tanks is free to play and Bit Tech has been pretty upbeat about that. It's the perfect example of this sort of thing done right. Everything in the game is already purchased with credits that you earn from playing, so having a few things show up that require gold isn't some big immersion breaker. the currency symbol next to it just changes from the color silver to gold. Aside from a few $31 tanks that are complete dead ends(Seriously, $31 for ONE tank that doesn't unlock anything in the tree), the other things you buy can generally be earned through playing. Or at least something similar.

Personally, when WoT surpassed Fallout New Vegas($50 game) in hours I'd played(200!) and I hadn't payed a single cent for it, I threw them $50. Only used about $10 of it on extra garage slots so far.

 

World of Warcraft just went F2P as well ... well, to level 20!

 

A free-to-play Champion you say? How about League of Legends?

No game has shown better than League of Legends how a Free-to-play model can work.

The growth has been astounding.

 

and dont forget guys the legendary Quake! check it out @ quakelive.com
its so much fun xD

 

Personally, I feel if they are going to make it F2P, they should do so from the beginning (from now on). It makes a better experience for all. I know that for the next few months I will be stuck playing Individual Fortress 2 rather than Team Fortress 2, put it that way.

I'm all for increased revenue due to the move, but there is no point in it if nobody will play because of the quality of the game. At the end of the day, players make the game what it is...

I'll be more than happy if it reverts to how it was though, with experienced players and great games.

Simple point of view I know, but we play the game, not get involved with the business behind it.

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