Addmired CEO Speaks to the High Price of Console Games, Serves to Fuel Free-to-Play Market
As technology continues to advance, so does the demand for bigger budget games, and along with that comes a higher price point. The CEO of mobile developer Addmired discussed this trend, pointing out its ability to fuel the free-to-play market.
Speaking to an audience at DICE, Addmired’s Gabriel Leydon shared his thoughts on the future of gaming and the natural drift toward free-to-play.
It removes the risk from the consumer. The consumer pays nothing to try out the game. I want the consumer to play for months without paying. Good free to play encourages players to stay and that’s where the longevity is, because the risk of an online pass, consoles that can’t play used games, DLC and all this stuff, after I’ve paid $70; why would do I do that? I can play lots of great games that are free.
Mobile is the home of free-to-play and that’s the next big model for video games. The real problem [for consoles] is price fixing. Consoles set expectations for prices for thirty years.
Mobile gaming and free-to-play in particular has grown exponentially over the past few years, and while there is plenty of validity to Leydon’s comments, consoles aren’t going anywhere. What we’ll likely see instead is a redefinition of the console experience that caters to a wide spectrum of price ranges including free-to-play.
[Via]
10 Responses to “Addmired CEO Speaks to the High Price of Console Games, Serves to Fuel Free-to-Play Market”
I would be entirely in favor of free games in which you would need to buy DLC in order to get a complete experience and you could choose which pieces you wanted. Like if a game has online multiplayer I may not be interested in but an amazing single player experience…I would like the choice to only pay for the single player campaign.
My only worry would be seeing $20 DLC that only includes 1/3 of the games campaign with developers essentially forcing us to continue to pay $60 for an entire story mode. This model would, however, put an end to all those “that should have been in the game to begin with” complaints about DLC.
Console game prices are way too expensive. $49.99 or $59.99 plus tax and handheld video games as well, $39.99 or $49.99 plus tax is way to expensive.
Free to play games is defiently the right choice for a lot of games. Some games that are priced at the above prices should be free or a few bucks tops.
I think you’re missing the point. If the gaming industry moved to free-to-play we wouldn’t get games like we pay $40-60 for today right out of the box, we would get shells of games that are like extended demos. They would serve to give us a taste of the experience and convince us to buy DLC, which would be more like expansion packs, in order to get a full experience. If the gaming industry sold their current games for free the industry would be bankrupt very quickly.
I think you’re missing the point. If the gaming industry moved to free-to-play we wouldn’t get games like we pay $40-60 for today right out of the box, we would get shells of games that are like extended demos. They would serve to give us a taste of the experience and convince us to buy DLC, which would be more like expansion packs, in order to get a full experience. If the gaming industry sold their current games for free the industry would be bankrupt very quickly.
I never said the industry should move to free to play, what I said and what I’m saying is some games should be free to play, obviously some shouldn’t. The best games ever shouldn’t be anywhere near the prices that they are now.
I like what I think Ridge Racer is doing for Vita. You get the basic game for free and buy the various parts when you want. That might be the future of games. That, and cloud based games where you stream to play. No more physical copies of games.
the only problem with the Ridge Racer model is that they are still charging $30 for a handheld game that has almost nothing in it…As it stands, Ridge Racer should cost something like $15 and then charge for additional content.
Yes, there is no reason for a game to cost full price when it is incomplete. It’s cheaper than some Vita games, but not by enough. If the total price of all its components is the same (or even a little more) as other games, then it is a good idea.
I know it’s not the perfect situation, but it’s an example of new things the industry is trying. But I agree that is all parts end up equaling a whole game it’s a neat idea that we may see more of. Imagine a game like Skyrim having a small part of the map available at the outset, then buying more if you enjoyed it enough to keep playing, as long as everything ended up costing the base price of the whole game, or even a little less.
Games are just to expensive which is why i use Gamefly and only buy games that have replaybility that i would wanna keep. Games prices should move down to $10-$40′s industry wonder why people buy games from gamestop and gamefly used and ect. If i wanted to buy 2 games thats $120 right there which is pretty expensive when i can get those 2 games from gamefly for only $20′s a month and why would i buy a game that i’m most likely gonna beat then its gonna collect dust? i bought UC3 i still play it, Bought ME2 i don’t regret it its a great experience Saints Row 3 Skyrim Just bought Kingdoms of Amalur. I feel unless prices go down then you can’t kill the used game market you also gotta give a customer a reason to buy these $60 games there selling not every game is a $60 game price them differences which is why i like how on PS Vita Uncharted is $50′s and other games prices varies. I’d never pay $60′s for Neverdead
WTF?
We clearly had a very good year in video games history with 2011 and now you try to tell me that titles like Uncharted 3, Batman Arkham City, Deus-Ex, MW3, BF3, Skyrim, Portal 2, Rage and all the others, first, were too costly for customers to buy a copy, and second, should have used a free-to-play model???