@atomic_dumpling said:
@Forum_User said:
@IceColdGamer said:
Unfortunately knew this was coming. These free-to-play things are just a sad fad.
Yeah, TF2 and League of Legends are due to stop making money any day now.
TF2 already made more than enough money during its original run. I see it as a unique case that should not be lumped together with "proper" free-to-play games concocted by marketing people with dollar signs for eyes.
However, I agree that both subscription based MMOs and F2P games are pretty much a recipe for financial failure at this juncture. I am frankly puzzled why publishers keep insisting on pushing those outdated concepts. The argument that those games generate enough money "just 'cause" is simply not valid anymore (if it ever was). The Old Republic debacle was completely foreseeable, too. MMOs are simply done, even WOW is barely holding on to its subscribers. Only the most cheaply produced games are still going to turn in an acceptable profit if they manage to fool enough people into paying for stuff. But the masses are not that dumb anymore.
I can assure you that free-to-play is not a "just a sad fad," which is what IceColdGamer said. In fact, we're only beginning to see a significant number of games do free-to-play intelligently. It's easy to point out certain free-to-play games that don't do well and say that the model is destined for failure, but by that kind of logic, I can say the same thing about traditional boxed games, because there's a ton of those that don't live up to expectations. That so many studios have been in financial trouble over the last several years has nothing to do with free-to-play, seeing as how most of them weren't making free-to-play games. It has more to do with the ever-escalating cost of game production.
And if TF2 isn't a good enough example for you, then how about Tribes: Ascend? Not everything needs to be a mega-hit to be a successful product. A lot of people seem to have this perception that free-to-play games are not very profitable, but in fact, the reason that more companies are making them is that the ones that people like and keep going back to actually tend to be extremely profitable.
MMOs aren't anywhere near done. New MMOs that mostly just ape WoW's structure are probably just about done, however.
Oh yeah, there is another factor to free-to-play games that I often forget: Most free-to-play games are online games, and piracy (making crappy pirate servers which do not offer the same experience, in this case) has little impact on them. People also seem to be a lot more willing to accept a required internet connection if the game is free. (What are they going to do? Say they're not buying it?) That's the part nobody is talking about publicly.
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