14 DAY TRIAL // The pricing strategy that dictates new video games should cost $60 is extremely exploitative, at least according to Ben Cousins, the head of Easy Studios, which is currently working on the Battlefield Play4Free online multiplayer title.
Gaming is becoming a pretty expensive hobby these days, especially in terms of games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, which cost, on average, $60.
This strategy is quite wrong, at least in the eyes of Ben Cousins, the boss of Easy Studios, who shared his insight with Rock Paper Shotgun.
According to him, the current pricing strategy is exploitative, and gamers will realize this sooner or later.
"I can't think of anything more exploitative than gating all of your content behind having to pay someone $60. That's a really harsh business model if you think about it objectively. What we do is enable everyone to play the game, and figure out if they like it. If they don't like it they can walk away and they don't lose anything."
The future of gaming is "platform agnostic," says Cousins, who believes that more and more people will become fans of free-to-play titles with "deep multiplayer experiences."
With the arrival of many free games, either standalone titles, like Battlefield Play4Free, browser-based ones like Battlefield Heroes, or Facebook applications like Dragon Age: Legends, more and more gamers will shift from spending $60 on console games or $50 on PC ones, to just trying out these free-to-play titles and seeing which one they like most.
EA also commented last week, through its EA Games Label President Frank Gibeau, that the PC platform could become its biggest moneymaker through free-to-play games that make a lot of money from microtransactions.
The company is now preparing to release the full pledged edition of Battlefield Play4Free this season, as the title is currently in closed beta stage.