Xbox 720 and PS4 could support free-to-play on a wide scale as lot of third-party publishers have advocated that its a viable business model and the platform holders should think about it in a serious way.
The currently released free-to-play game Happy Wars is the first game with such a business model to be released on the Xbox 360. The PS3 also has a bunch of such games like Dust 514. For free-to-play games a lot of in-game monetisation is required to acquire significant revenues but it could be possible if the platform holders strongly participate too.
“I believe it is quite natural that people will gather to play games for free. I predict that, moving forward, even triple-A titles will be shifting toward Play-for-Free,” Toylogic president Yoichi Take said to GamesIndustry. The studio developed Happy Wars.
“However, there are game designs that can only be realized as package titles, so I feel that package games and the Play-for-Free model will coexist, and indeed I welcome their coexistence. He thinks the introduction of a free-to-play game on Xbox Live will help other developers keep an open-mind to that possibility.
“Because this will be [an] early Play-for-Free title, I do feel a sense of responsibility for helping to develop Xbox Live moving forward,” Take said. “At the same time, I also recognize this as a great opportunity.”
Free-to-play is a very successful business model generating revenues much higher than what packaged goods can bring at a less investment. PS4 and Xbox 720 could deeply integrate this model by providing proper infrastructure.