Surprise! It turns out Nexon, which calls itself “the best in Free-to-play online games,” reckons free-to-play games are the future.
“I think at some point the console makers have to make a decision about how closed or open they’re going to be to the different models that are going to be emerging,” Nexon CEO, Daniel Kim, told Gameindustry International. “Today it’s free-to-play, and I’m convinced that that one is going to continue to flourish and expand into other genres and other categories, but there may be something else completely and entirely different that comes out that again changes the industry.”
As CEO of free-to-play MMO outfit, Nexon, Kim isn’t exactly unbiased when it comes to this particular debate, but he’s echoing sentiments expressed by numerous developers and publishers.
“If your mind is just set on keeping the current model of buy a game for $60, play for 40 hours, buy another game for $60, play for 40 hours, that model I think is eventually going to change,” Kim continued.
40 hours is perhaps a touch generous, but Kim continues:
“It’s going to have to change. How they will adapt I really don’t know, but I hope that they’re aware enough to understand that the value proposition of free-to-play is not going to go away.”
Kim went on to note that with the exception of Sony, console manufacturers are hesitant to embrace the free-to-play model. He singled out Microsoft for particular criticism.
“Dungeon Fighter is being released as a Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade version of the game. But again we had to modify the game and the business model to fit their restrictions or requirements. It’s not free-to-play, it’s DLC essentially,” he said. “Which is not really truly how we like to service our games, we like to service our games completely free-to-play, no limits, and earn the players’ business by convincing them there’s value in purchasing stuff.”
Source: Gameindustry International
Published: Mar 13, 2012 05:30 am