Free-to-Play options considered by Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata

Iwata talks about new business models like F2P.

Nintendo made its first foray into the DLC business with the Wii U and it seems that they will be experimenting more with new business models such as Free-to-play.

He also revealed that it will be something entirely new and won’t be put into old franchises like Mario.

“We [as an industry] can now do distribution by digital means as well as micro-transactions, and the ways to obtain money through supporting entertainment have increased,” he said to Nikkei.

“I have no intention of denying charged games or the free-to-play model. If we were to talk about if Nintendo were to do that, however, I do not [have] much inclination to do that with Nintendo’s established well-known products, where people trust their interesting-ness.”

Again he reterirated that it won’t be put into franchises like Mario or Pokemon and will be used in a creative way.

“For new titles with no established base, if, in the process of development, we found it to suit the free-to-play model, we might follow that route, or we might do something like ‘cheap-to-play’,” he said.

“Our sales methods have been freed up and I have no desire to extinguish that freedom. If we were to release something like that, it is not a betrayal but the birth of an interesting idea through our new found freedom, that’s all. I am not talking about changing how we sell Mario or Pokémon.”

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Thanks, Eurogamer.

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