nsane.forums Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Rein says Microsoft and Sony are "both going heavily in that area."Those hoping that the spread of free-to-play gaming would slow down or halt in the near future won't be happy with what Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein is saying about the next generation of consoles.Speaking at the Game Horizon conference in Newcastle, UK (as reported by Joystiq), Rein said point blank that "the next-gen consoles are going to be fully embracing the free-to-play and these IAP [in-app purchase]-type business models. So in case you don't know that, I'm putting that out there. Sony and Microsoft are both going heavily in that area."When moderator Matt Martin from GamesIndustry International said there isn't evidence to back up this kind of talk from the console makers just yet, Rein responded, "Well, I'm telling you. I'm telling you what they're telling developers."Free-to-play gaming isn't totally new to consoles these days. Toylogic released cutesy multiplayer RTS/brawler Happy Wars as a free-to-play title on Xbox Live Arcade last year, and Sony Online Entertainment released PS3 versions of free-to-play MMOs DC Universe Online and Free Realms last year as well. More recently, CCP's first-person shooter Dust 514 launched as a free-to-play title on PS3, and Namco has announced that the upcoming Ridge Racer Driftopia will be free to play on both PC and PS3. On the Xbox 360, Signal Studios is working on Ascend: Hand of Kul as a free-to-play RPG, and Microsoft itself is planning to release a free-to-play World Series of Poker title on Xbox Live and Windows 8.Rein's comments seem to suggest that Microsoft and Sony are interested in further increasing the prevalence of free-to-play titles on their upcoming hardware. Zombie Studios has already announced that the PS4 first-person shooter Blacklight: Redemption will be free-to-play, and Sony Worldwide Studios chief Shuhei Yoshida told Game Informer recently that the studio is working on a "free-to-play type" PS4 game itself. Microsoft hasn't announced any such free-to-play plans for its next Xbox (or much of any concrete plans at all for the system), but the company has dabbled with free-to-play game publishing through last year's Microsoft Flight.We know that free-to-play is a dirty word among a large segment of the Ars audience, but this isn't necessarily bad news for the future of console gaming. As the above-mentioned titles highlight, free-to-play is no longer synonymous with the casual and "social" clickfests that used to dominate the space. As long as developers can balance the game so paying for items doesn't mean paying to win, this kind of focus could lead to a lot of high-quality games that don't require players to shell out money up front.View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alaindc Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 free to play, it's more pay to play... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Orus Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 free to play, it's more pay to play...nobody gives anything. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CODYQX4 Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 I'd rather give them $60 up front than hundreds over the course of a few years to buy everything because free to play = all good items/guns/whatever = $$$.It would be like BF3 with only 2 or 3 free guns (and we know some are way better than others). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted May 10, 2013 Administrator Share Posted May 10, 2013 I like TF2's free to play model. You can get 90% of items in random drop - want the weapon now(?) - pay for it. But with limited space - make one single purchase - get full inventory space.But, otherwise, F2P model has just been misused by greedy companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowdrop Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 I like TF2's free to play model. You can get 90% of items in random drop - want the weapon now(?) - pay for it. But with limited space - make one single purchase - get full inventory space.But, otherwise, F2P model has just been misused by greedy companies.Agreed.What do you guys think about being able to buy 'levels', in say for example an MMO? I personally find that misused, but I would think that it does help reduce the amount of account selling and catch up to where your friends are at immediately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nIGHT Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 free to play, it's more pay to play...For us, we interpret it as Free-to-play, Pay-to-Win! haha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.