You really have to feel for Funcom. The company was betting a lot on it’s subscription MMO based The Secret World. Nonetheless, they’re moving forward and decided to sit down with GIBiz to discuss free-to-play and turning The Secret World into the same.
Funcom CEO Ole Schreiner stated, “We definitely have the tools to turn The Secret World into a free-to-play game – or even hybrid – should we decide to do that somewhere down the line. We did that with Age of Conan with significant success.”
But is there much scope for F2P titles to overtake subscription based models?
“I do think that as that as free-to-play offerings keep raising the bar in terms of quality and longevity, it’s becoming more and more difficult for subscription games to live up to player’s expectations. If you’re demanding a monthly fee from someone they obviously expect more value than they get from a similar free-to-play offering,” said Schreiner.
So quality over reviving and retooling properties then. Are the concerned parties listening?