One of the leaders of well-known AAA developer Epic Games believes that the freemium business model is the future for video games globally and that soon well-funded Western companies will begin creating titles custom made for the big and unexplored Asian market.
Tim Sweeney, the chief executive officer and one of the co-founders of
Epic Games, has told the audience at the GDC Taipei event that, “All these western developers spending $30 million to develop these games for dedicated consoles – all of these companies are going to be invading the Asian markets within the next five years or so, and they’ll be free to play, worldwide, global products.”
As communication technology evolves, all major video games will have to become global products and that can only happen if companies are ready to explore new markets and new business models.
Sweeney has added, “North American and European developers are far, far behind the state of the art Asian business models. We’ve been building these games like Gears of War where you go into the store and you buy a piece of plastic. You just buy this DVD. That is going to change rapidly.”
The executive has revealed that, when it comes to profit compared to development time, Infinity Blade was the best title that
Epic Games has created, even if the company is best known for its Gears of War series.
The outfit is now working on a new installment in the franchise, called Judgment, which will offer a prequel experience and will allow gamers to control Baird in the aftermath of the events of Emergence Day.
The company is also working on Infinity Blade: Dungeons, which will be launched for mobile devices during 2012.
Given the comments coming from Tim Sweeney, Epic Games is also probably in the initial planning stages of a free-to-play title using Unreal Engine 4.
Find us on Google+
No user comments yet.
Be the first to express your opinion!
