14 DAY TRIAL // Free to play seems to be the future of a number of genres and gains ground over the traditional subscription and retail models and at least one prominent video games developer believes that more and more companies will use it in the future.
Chris Taylor, who is the leader of Gas Powered Games and is currently working on Age of Empires Online, has told Eurogamer that, “To me it’s the future. Absolutely it’s the future. If I had to make any prognostications about the gaming industry, that’s the easiest one I will have made in 10 years. This model is coming. It’s here to stay. It’s good on every level.”
He added, “When I have this experience, where I can get a ‘freemium’ game that’s incredible, huge with arguably hundreds of hours of free gameplay, why would I go to the store and spend $50 in the old model? I’m so done with that. It’s fair to say I’m done dropping that kind of money. I want this in everything. Take any favorite game of mine.”
When Taylor talks about freemium, he is referring to free-to-play games which open up a section of the feature set to all players and give them access to all the game world and encourages them to pay real world money in order to get all the features and process more easily through the challenges.
The Gas Powered Games leader believes that the freemium concept will in time come to dominate the entire entertainment industry.
Age of Empire Online is set to be launched during the fall of this year and will arrive both in a retail package which includes some premium options and as a digital download.
The game offers the basics of a real time strategy, and players will initially be able to play the Egyptian and the Greek civilizations, with other content added after launch.