Epic VP: Next consoles will “fully embrace” free-to-play gaming

[mindcycle]

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."

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.

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.

Read the rest here:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/epic-vp-next-consoles-will-fully-embrace-free-to-play-gaming/

I don't know exactly how I feel about this honestly. As long as there are still decent single player games released as traditional "full games" (or as "full" as you can get with all the DLC that's bound to be there..), I guess this will only be a minor annoyance. What do you guys think?

EDIT: To clarify: "this will only be a minor annoyance", meaning, a minor annoyance for me to flat out ignore these F2P games. If this becomes part of most titles then that's a definite problem for me.

 

[mizzou]

How do I feel?

HOW DO I FEEL??!!

 

[mindcycle]

^ haha.

 

[ImpulsE69]

So..if I download F2P games and never buy anything they are selling am I pirating? :whiste:

 

[mmntech]

I've never liked the idea of F2P and micro-transactions. It's like picking up a Big Mac, only getting the bottom bun, and then having to pay a premium for the meat and cheese. The burger ends up costing more than if you had just paid for the whole thing up front. But that's the point of micro-transactions, isn't it.

 

[mizzou]

So..if I download F2P games and never buy anything they are selling am I pirating? :whiste:

Nope. You just will live a life off of appetizers and never enjoy the full three course meal.

 

[ManBearPig]

deleted

 

[Via]

Of course it's going in the direction of pay-to-win. Anybody with half a brain can see that.

I'm just waiting for the degrading weapons in single player games that you have to re-buy if you want to do another play through a year or two down the line.

 

[Necc]

Funny, what's next? pay if you wanna reload your weapone?

 

[purbeast0]

i don't understand what the uproar over this is about. if you don't want to play the games and pay for the in-game stuff, don't. there are plenty of other games to play.

the only free to play game i've ever played (and still mess around with) is nemo's reef on my phone. but you don't HAVE to pay for anything if you don't want to. it just makes some things easier if you do.

 

[mmntech]

Funny, what's next? pay if you wanna reload your weapone?

There's a few games like that already on iOS. No, I'm not joking.

 

[smackababy]

There's a few games like that already on iOS. No, I'm not joking.

WarZ had this, but the game COSTS money to begin with. The best part was if you die with any of the weapons / ammo you purchased with real money, they were gone FOREVER. This included any of the character dress up items IIRC as well.

 

[Imaginer]

PayPerPlayStation and CoinOpBox infinity here we come!

 

[smackababy]

I doubt this is going to be something the mainstream developers take "advantage" of. I think it will be left to the indie developers who only have digital distribution models and easy arcade / social games.

Perhaps, some games will use microtransactions, but a free disc based game? No way.

 

[Ban Bot]

Airmech is a F2P game that has no "win" transactions and I have found it to be a lot of fun. I have not played Super Monday Night Combat (but LOVE MNC) and it is F2P with no win transactions. Ditto TF2. I think for some game types/ideas it works.

 

[KaOTiK]

Airmech is a F2P game that has no "win" transactions and I have found it to be a lot of fun. I have not played Super Monday Night Combat (but LOVE MNC) and it is F2P with no win transactions. Ditto TF2. I think for some game types/ideas it works.

Yeah, F2P can be done well. Airmech as you mentioned as well as TF2. Tribes Ascend, Path of Exile, Planetside 2, and Tera are other F2P games that are done very well. They have no pay2win. You can unlock everything in the game by playing and in some of them the only way to unlock stuff is by playing.

Edit, totally forgot about Dota 2, dunno how I forgot that one and I play it lol sigh

 

[smackababy]

Dota and HoN I think are perfect examples of how to do F2P. You get the entire, full game at the very start and everyone has access to the same abilities from the get go (unlike LoL where you have to hit level 30 and buy heroes). The only transactions are things like name colors, hero avatar stuff, and stat resets.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

So many developers screw up the idea of F2P. The way it should work is that the F2P portion of the game is like a demo for the P2P version and the P2P version is the full game.

The way so many of these games do it now is they are P2W (pay to win) games, not true F2P games.