Unfortunately, free to play games get a bit of a bad rap. It makes sense- as much as there are some great free to play games, such as Dota 2, or Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, there are exploitative games such as Dungeon Defenders that are designed to extract every last penny from the customer at every possible game. Unfortunately, the later kind seem to far outnumber the former kind, and they are what has led to such a stigma being associated with free to play games as a whole.
However, in the upcoming Game Developer’s Conference in March 2015, Damion Schubert, the former Bioware developer who oversaw the transition of their failed MMORPG from a subscription model to a more sustainable free to play one, will be giving a presentation on how free to play doesn’t have to be ‘evil.’
“The success of games like SWTOR show that free-to-play games are not just coming to AAA entertainment–the future is now,” the panel description reads. “F2P can lead to massive success, but if done carelessly, can alienate your consumer base.”
“Free-to-play is the future, and this is a very good thing for our game players,” it goes on. “Game makers should focus on building games that players can fall in love with. If they do so, players will spend and spend happily.”
We’ll keep you posted on his final address.
