14 DAY TRIAL // The Game Developers Conference strikes yet again with more juicy information coming our way, as Sony revealed during a presentation that the free-to-play business across both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 platforms is going very well.
Sony explained that their free-to-play segment has been growing by a large factor, reporting a year-on-year increase in revenue of 50 percent, which is a formidable achievement; unfortunately, the specifics are yet unknown, as Sony has not disclosed any actual numbers.
The free-to-play market has always had both its strong points and its pitfalls, but whatever the general opinion is on the matter, the market is booming.
Sony revealed that free-to-play games have 3 to 15 percent rate of conversion, which means that 3 to 15 percent of the total players become paying customers, and that the average play sessions in the this sector average upwards of 90 minutes.
Furthermore, Sony revealed some other statistics pertaining to their two main platforms, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 home entertainment systems.
As such, the PlayStation 3 registers an average revenue per paying user that is comparable to what the free-to-play sector on PC registers, with the users who play the most also being those who invest the most money in the games, and that the PlayStation 3 console averages more hours of use per week than any other console.
On the PlayStation 4 front, things are looking even better for both game developers and Sony, as the average revenue per paying user is even higher than the one registered on the PlayStation 3.
Another interesting fact revealed by Sony is that over 80 percent of PlayStation 4 users have downloaded digital content and over 90 percent of PlayStation 4 consoles are connected to the internet.
The news is very good for small and indie studios, the area where most free-to-play games come from, but despite the healthy business medium this sector has had its share of hurdles.
Blacklight: Retribution developers Zombie Studios were one of the vocal parties at the presentation, expressing small developers' frustration with how long Sony's certification process takes for game updates, a significant obstacle that is particularly pressing for free-to-play games, as they need to be constantly releasing new content in order to keep their users engaged.
This is not singular to Sony's platform, as many indie developers have decried similar difficulties on the Xbox, where patches cost a lot and take very long to deploy as opposed to other more lenient platforms.
Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi also expressed his view that lengthy certification processes are "totally unacceptable for a meaningful free to play" experience.
There is a lot of room for improvement in this area, and PlayStation's free-to-play manager Sarah Thomson pointed out that Sony is well aware of the concerns surrounding patch certification turnarounds and pledged Sony's commitment to streamline the process.