Speaking in an interesting interview with Kotaku, the publisher’s Peter Moore outlines his plans for next gen and beyond.
“I think, ultimately, microtransactions will be in every game, but the game itself or the access to the game will be free,” he said.
“I measure our business in millions of people have bought our game. Maybe when I’m retired, as this industry progresses, hundreds of millions are playing the games.”
But here’s the real twist: “Zero bought it.”
“We’re getting 5 cents, 6 cents average revenue per user a day out of these people,” he added.
“The great majority will never pay us a penny which is perfectly fine with us,” he continues candidly, “but they add to the eco-system and the people who do pay money – the whales as they are affectionately referred to – to use a Las Vegas term, love it because to be number one of a game that like 55 million people playing is a big deal.”
“I think there’s an inevitability that happens five years from now, 10 years from now, that, let’s call it the client, to use the term, is free.”
I know it’s all about money, but there’s just something about this guy.
DividSmythe
I find F2P as quite poor quality games but they can onlky get better.
I was just thinking imagine if FIFA went F2P and say the loser of the online match pays say £1 for that match, Then go to say the trophy requires you not to lose for a whole month not with minimum 20 matches a month without defeat. That would really earn those much loved £’s out of people
DividSmythe
*only
Forrest_01
Nope – Not knocking your idea, but I’m afraid that would actually put me off playing, not push me on.
That game would go in the bin.
KeRaSh
That’s not how F2P works. To use your FIFA analogy it would be more like this:
You can play FIFA for free but you’d have to pay 99 Cents if you want a green Soccer ball or 1.99$ if you want Christiano Ronaldo playing for your custom team.
Bilbo_bobbins
nope, don’t agree. Maybe thats what EA wants, but I can’t see it happening. People aren’t stupid. They know if they end up paying more than the normal cost for a game, that they wont bother again. I personally hate the micro transaction way of playing games.
I think everyone should be on a level playing field, and if you want to be better, you earn it by playing the game and unlocking stuff.
gazzagb
Pay2Win really annoys me and I think it annoys the majority of players too. I’m sure we’ll see more F2P games in the future, but I doubt it will be exclusive.
rossthebassist
All games free to play sounds like a plan to me, Imagine battlefield 4, launches free to play, you have extra map purchases, weapon purchases, camo’s and skills to buy, most hardcore battlefielders would end up paying at least as much as a retail game on maps and weapons.
Best part of free to play, it negates piracy, the game is already free! and those pirates would probably end up buying some weapons etc etc meaning they get converted into customers.
I agree with free to play, but someone has to take the plunge with a big title to get the model over!
Sympozium
A F2p only future would be very bleak if the interest of consoles waned then the only sensible gaming option would be Steam I guess.
Forrest_01
Not if you don’t have a PC! :S
Sympozium
I still think the PC has a good few years depending how long the demand of games on the likes of Steam lasts, like £400 for a decent spec is good enough to start PC gaming.
mcmahonman
It only seems to be workable with certain genre of game though. I can’t see how it could work with something like Bayonetta or Assassin’s Creed.
hazelam
suits me, i’m not really interested in being a power player or anything like that, not having the best gear or whatever doesn’t bother me, so i would probably end up being able to play these games for free.
but honestly, i can’t see ea adopting that model for all their games.
for one, how are they going to sell almost the same game year after year?
and, as others have said, it won’t work for the single player story based games, though that seems to be a direction ea are very definitely heading away from.
wick15
This is a terrible idea. It will just end up with a Pay2Win system in most games. I’ve played games like that before and it totally ruins the experience. Battlefield Play4Free is a perfect example of Pay2Win in all it’s glory. I won’t touch that now because unless you spend money on decent weapons, you will never have the same chances as the people who do.
I don’t see this being the way forward and I can’t see virtually all games going F2P.
bunimomike
Some game-types will benefit from F2P but he’s a bit blinkered to include all, if you ask me. As long as individual titles don’t end up being Play2Win then we should be fine. Heck, League of Legends has been good fun and there’s no way I would’ve bought into that if it was £30 upfront. It’s also a great way for us to try something out to see if we like it first.
Microtransactions don’t bother me too much as long as I have full control over things (which will always be the case, I hope).
sg
exactly…ALL games will be f2p…that can’t happen.
what about the single player games?..how will that work?
ea just need to stfu.
The Lone Steven
Free2play is a terrible idea as it’s always free2play but if you want, you can become the best player by buying this sword of killing players in 1 hit. Plus, game developers would have little to no incentive to do a decent job if all of EA’s games become F2P as i’m sure many devs rather sell their game for £40 and get paid then move onto a new IP then being forced to work on a f2p title.
Plus, if he had his way, we would pay £100 for a game that is 10% content, 25% transaction based stuff and 65% DLC that consists of content that was supposed to be the game. ;)
Sympozium
He’s a smelly business man simple as that.