14 DAY TRIAL // The development team that is in charge of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag says that the power of microtransactions can be used for good by game makers and that the title would not have had regular free maps added to the multiplayer modes without them.
Damien Kieken, the game director for the most recent entry in the long-running series, explained at the Game Developers Conference 2014 that his company made the decision to keep maps free before the game was launched.
He is quoted by MP1st as saying that, “We are offering all of our maps… so all of the AC maps are free in AC4. The main reason is we don’t want to split the community. We don’t want to have players saying, ‘I have the DLC, so I’m only playing with the guys who have the DLC, my buddy doesn’t have the DLC, so he can’t play with me’. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Ubisoft wants gamers to spend money on its game as long as they are inclined to do so, but he believes that there are better ways to keep the wider player community both engaged and satisfied.
Kieken adds, “For us, because we want all of them to enjoy the game together, to keep playing together, to be happy together, and to spend money on the costume and other things.”
Ubisoft says that the decision has led to an increase in the revenue that was associated with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, although the company was not willing to offer any real numbers.
The move also made sense because the title is still focused on the single-player element, even if the multiplayer is growing in popularity with each new launch.
The biggest first-person shooter franchises, like Call of Duty, Battlefield and the new Titanfall, tend to include new maps in their downloadable content packages, which are offered both individually and using a Season Pass system.
The development teams at Respawn Entertainment, DICE and Infinity Ward are counting on the hardcore nature of most players, who will always get the most recent maps in order to keep up with their friends and their rivals.
At the moment, Ubisoft has confirmed that it is working on a new Assassin’s Creed title, called Unity, which is set to arrive on the PC, the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony.
The title will be launched this year.