Console owners: Free-to-play is coming. Do not panic.
So far, free-to-play games that make money from in-game purchases largely have been confined to mobile platforms and PCs. Game consoles have largely been driven by the "pay-to-own" model, whether that's a $60 disc in a box or a $5 download.
That won't last. Last month, Wargaming announced that its hugely popular free-to-play massive multiplayer online tank battle game World of Tanks would be coming to the Xbox One. Sony has a burgeoning free-to-play market, with 16 titles already launched across all PlayStation platforms and more in the pipeline. The popular open-world zombie survival game H1Z1 is coming to PS4 later this year. And Nintendo has rolled out many free-to-play games on its 3DS platform.
So actually, maybe it's better to say that free-to-play is already here, and here to stay. Do not panic.
"Not only is free coming, we're going to see things get more free," Damion Schubert, former lead designer on the free-to-play MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, said at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"It seems absurd to think about some of the genres now ever charging a box price," Schubert said. The wildly popular "multiplayer online battle arena" genre that includes games like League of Legends is so inextricably tied to free that it would be almost impossible to sell one in a box, he said. "It's a ridiculous notion. You have to start with the value proposition of League of Legends and work from there."
At its inception, the smartphone game market looked like a miniature version of today's console market, dominated by premium-priced, one-and-done games that cost $5 to $10. But Apple's subsequent decision to allow in-app purchases within free applications flipped the switch, and now free is the dominant price for mobile games.
A similar tectonic shift on consoles, should it come, might result in higher-quality console experiences.
Many gamers, myself included, reflexively cringe at the idea of free-to-play mechanics getting into our games. I see free as too good a price: The phrase conjures visions of incomplete games, money-grabbing microtransactions, and leaderboards dominated by players willing to shell out the most cash. Free makes me think of mobile clickfests like Farmville and Tiny Tower and frustratingly addictive pablum like Candy Crush and Flappy Bird.
But to the younger generation, free is the new normal, from music to television to all that porn they're probably watching. Their first MMO was MapleStory or Runescape, not World of Warcraft. And with so much free entertainment out there, they're becoming more discerning. They won't play a bad game just because it's free, because there are plenty of free good games competing for their time.
"Really bad games do not do well in the free-to-play space—it's incredibly Darwinian," Schubert said. "But with a $60 boxed product, all you really have to do is get that money and then it's fire and forget."
Some of 2014's biggest triple-A, $60 games were riddled with bugs, glitches, and other problems. Many players simply quit Halo: The Master Chief Collection when its multiplayer situation was in disarray, but that didn't get their $60 back.
If Master Chief Collection had been free-to-play, it would have died quietly, seen a much swifter resolution, or perhaps never have launched in such a broken state in the first place. Might that not have been better for console players?
Sure, you can put free games on consoles, but will console diehards spend as much on microtransactions as mobile players do?Actually, those familiar with the business say console players spend more than mobile players on microtransactions.
"Console players are hardcore gamers who are already very invested into their system," said Sarah Thompson, head of Sony's free-to-play division, during another Game Developers Conference panel. "They've already invested a lot of money into that system, so their intent to purchase is quite high."
"Spending currency to progress faster is more of a focus for our console players," said TJ Wagner, creative director of World of Tanks, during another Game Developers Conference panel. "They want to get there faster than their PC counterparts."
The locked-down nature of game consoles---Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have costly processes that must be followed every time a game is patched---can present a problem for free-to-play games, which typically are updated constantly to improve players' experience (and add new ways for them to pay).
For now, games with a PC version as well as a console version can be something of a two-tiered system: The PC version, which developers can tweak and refine incessantly, and the console version, which gets the improvements already proven in the PC version.
As enthusiastic as free-to-play evangelists like Schubert can be about the future of the concept, they warn against going down the slippery slope of chasing microtransactions. In his talk, he emphasized the importance of free-to-play designers always having someone in the room to advocate for players' interests; someone to ensure that conversations don't shift too far into methods of squeezing players for every penny.
"You want people to feel good about every dollar they give you," Schubert said.
