14 DAY TRIAL // High-profile publishers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are now eager to get into the free-to-play and microtransaction-powered gaming space while Steam has just launched a new section that features them, but it seems that in the near future Nintendo is not interested in bringing any free-to-play titles to its consoles.
Satoru Iwata, who is the leader of Nintendo, has spoken to All Things Digital and said, “If we were simply going to say OK, the only the way we could sell more products is by decreasing the price, then there wouldn't be a bright future and the entire industry will fold.”
He added, “When we look at the entire system of freemium, it's not always that everyone is happy with the offers. Actually, there's only a limited number of people who are willing to pay and many others are not paying for game titles at all”, just before adding that there was no interest in the new gaming space from Nintendo.
Nintendo has long maintained that gaming needs to be consistent about price points, saying that dropping prices aggressively can lead a group of companies towards success but will devalue the entire industry.
When smartphone gaming growth over the last few years has prompted similar statements from Nintendo, with the company saying that the 1 dollar price of most games on Apple and Android devices is a threat to the gaming industry.
Iwata also said that the free-to-play model is unworkable in the long term.
It's interesting to note that the Wii U home console has been confirmed as getting a version of the Ghost Recon Online game from Ubisoft, which has been confirmed as being free to play and microtransaction powered on the PC.
It's not clear whether the game will be using the same model on consoles.