Indie games need to persuade players to pay in order to survive

Nov 9, 2012 08:23 GMT  ·  By

Peter Molyneux, the video game developer behind Black & White and Fable, believes that monetization is a somewhat disgusting mechanic for indie titles like Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube?, but that, at the same time, it is crucial to the commercial success of any project.

The developer tells GamesIndustry.biz that, “You’re not supposed to do this for money. But, actually, if you all pin us down and put a bright light in our eyes, feed us truth drugs, I bet all of us would be. Well, you need money, let’s be honest.”

“The thing that we’re disgusted about, in the indie world, is greed. I’ve got this big thing about free-to-play at the moment: in a lot of freemium games I’ve played it’s obvious to me that they just want to wring me for everything I’ve got, in the shortest possible time. That’s all,” he adds.

Molyneux also says that his own experiences with free-to-play and microtransaction-powered games have been less than thrilling and have left him feeling both impatient and bored, even if he has spent hours and money trying to enjoy the experience.

Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube? has been launched this week on mobile devices and the game allows players to use microtransactions to perform slightly better. At the moment, Curiosity has just started its second layer and gamers are expected to continue chipping away at the game and try to be the first to reach the core.

Despite its limited gameplay mechanics, the new Peter Molyneux game has managed to get millions of players working together and many have reviewed the game positively, praising its addictive elements.

Peter Molyneux was long seen as one of the more innovative designers in video gaming, especially after his work on Populous and Black & White, and he plans to continue pushing the frontiers of gaming at his new studio, 22 Cans.