This Week in Games is a weekly column where Vikki Blake breaks down the biggest stories in gaming every week. This week she wants to remind you that even though something is “free”, that doesn’t mean it won’t cost you anything…
YYou know the old saying, right? “If you don’t pay for a product, you are the product”. It started circulating when we were stupid and naive and downloaded all the old shit on our devices without reading the fine print. Were we wary of viruses back then? You bet we were: malware was nothing new. Were we wary of where our data ended up? We were fucking.
That’s why EA’s recent decision to change its favorite skate franchise, Skate, in a free-to-play title should raise eyebrows as well as expectations. In an effort to appeal to “Gen Z and Gen Alpha players,” the company announced during its latest earnings call that it was switching from a “premium plus live service” to a free-to-play (F2P) model to better to match, ahem, “how they consume content”.
Aside from the starkly obvious – each generation of British children grows up to be British adults with less money than the last, with less and less income from removals to pursue hobbies like games and music – it’s an indicator that isn’t just about EA’s shifting marketing priorities, but perhaps also how gamemakers as a whole think about monetization. After all, F2P titles are no longer on the fringes of the industry, but at the heart of it.
Now take a look at the biggest games from Steam Charts. Of the titles with the most people playing – CS:GO, dota 2, Apex Legends, PUBG: Battlefieldsand GTA 5 respectively – all but one (GTA, the last-generation blockbuster that refuses to die) are free to play. It’s not hard to see why the people in costumes are screaming to make sure games with their logos are listed between them, right?
However, there is nothing inherently wrong with F2P games. While it might have been more insidious on mobile (I worked briefly as a copywriter for a very well-known company and the amount of shovelware I had to write about almost broke me; no, I didn’t last long there), if done right, having F2P titles every right to stand shoulder to shoulder against premium titles. EA’s own Apex Legends is just one example of this. While not without its problems, it’s still one of my favorite shooters and a fantastic example of how an F2P model can not only outperform, but excel.
The monetization strategy is of course a little less fantastic, but I’m not even against that – at least not in theory. Top has given me many, many hours of unbridled pleasure, all for the princely expense of zero pounds and zero pence. I bought the first Battle Pass not because I really wanted it, but because I wanted to support Respawn. I wanted to make sure these servers stay live for a long time to come. Buying a Battle Pass a few times a year seems like more than a fair reward for a game that gave me and my friends so many good times.
MultiVersus – also free to play – also seems to be making waves for all the right reasons. Sure, we learned the hard way that some publishers are secretly holding back monetization strategies until they’re out of beta and fully launched, but we’ve spent some time thinking that “the market and in-game trades are fair and balanced, and nothing you buy with ‘real’ money will improve your actual performance.” Our preview also revealed that “everyone gets”[s] a fair chance to unlock the characters they’ve set their hearts on without having to part with their money, if they don’t want to.” So no whining here.
The problem with these cosmetic microtransactions is not a discussion of balance, but a separate issue – players who find it very difficult to ignore the flashing store banners and the irresistible appeal of completing collections, even if they are “just cosmetic”. That sounds doubly true when studies have found links between gambling and gaming – at the end of the day, there is definitely a subset of players who will struggle to play games without cost.
In today’s world, a rising cost of living means an increasing number of gamers will struggle to pay full price for the latest title – and if a game is free means more people can access it, then it’s hard to argue about it. However, the problem with microtransactions – really – comes down to what they offer. Gamers rightly refuse to accept that those they can afford should get a competitive advantage over those who can’t, meaning that these extra costs are mostly tied to “cosmetic” items for now. That doesn’t mean we see our tolerance untested, though, with those premium mobile “timesaver” shortcuts slowly making their way into console and PC gaming.
Maybe the idea of paying for “extras” when a game is F2P is more palatable? I know I often think that way, especially when we’re navigating a game world teeming with expansions and DLC and battle passes and premium editions, all of which are designed to make us part more of our hard-earned cash even after we paid topwhack for the latest game. A freebie can be great for gaming on a budget, but be careful: just because a game is free to play doesn’t mean it won’t cost you anything in the end.
What else?
- A brand new spin-off of the Splatoon card game was announced during the recent Splatoon 3 Direct for the game, and it is based on the multiplayer Turf War game mode.
- Xbox has announced its plans for Gamescom 2022, and it includes five first-party titles that can be played on the booth this year: Age Of Empires 4, Grounded, Microsoft Flight Sim, Pentiment, and Sea Of Thieves. There will also be nine third-party titles available on the booth.
- Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has revealed that “quite a few attempts” have been made to create a video game set in the Breaking Bad universe and although he is “not much” of a gamer, he had asked a few people “who owns Grand Theft Auto?” with the intention of collaborating on a project.
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