The company is trying to enter the genre with Assassin’s Creed: Utopia

Sep 24, 2012 20:41 GMT  ·  By

Publisher Ubisoft has made a big move towards the free-to-play PC-based market and the company sees trust and player feedback are crucial to the development of the genre.

Stephanie Perotti, who is the worldwide director of online games at Ubisoft, told MCV that, “Initial free-to-play games had low quality or unfair business models, like you have to pay to win, or you have to pay because you’re the worst and lack experience. So perhaps there’s this fear that nothing can be free and that at some point the game will try and trick them into something.”

Perotti name checked League of Legends, the MOBA game from Riot Games, saying that gamers no longer think about it as free-to-play and only evaluate the quality of the experience that it is offering.

Ubisoft believes that brands are a crucial part of the free-to-play business model, which is the reason why it uses franchises like Might & Magic and Silent Hunter in its push for success.

She added, “It’s really dependant on when it makes sense to use brands, when you have the chance to reach out to new players. Free-to-play offers a chance to reach new players, and we want our players to be able to enjoy all brands no matter what platform they’re on.”

Ubisoft emphasizes the fact that it has recruited solid development teams for all its free-to-play titles and expects that gamers will play the games as long as they offer solid gameplay.

The publisher has recently announced Assassin’s Creed: Utopia, a game which uses the same universe as the blockbuster series for consoles, and The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, a title that mixes dungeon raids and tower defense.

Recently, Ubisoft has also dropped the Digital Rights Management measures for all PC titles and promised gamers more resources devoted to ports.