Free to Play Going Mainstream

By, Mike K.
Even though 2008 and 2009 have been great years for the free to play industry, it promised larger market. These games used to be quickly written off by most gamers and media outlets as cheap Korean grindfests but this mentality has definitely started to change. Those free to play games like Atlantica Online and Runes of Magic are largely responsible for this change as they have really raised the bar in terms of quality. Heck, these games on easily on par with lower tier pay to play MMORPGs like Metin2 Yang Alganon and Warhammer Online. Traditional producers also have been converted to some extend. EA now publishes two free to play titles – Battlefield Heroes and BattleForge. Sony on the other hand only has one game at the moment called Free Realms. These game’s aren’t ’small’ either. Battlefield Heroes boasts over 2 million registered users while Free Realms 3 million+. Even Turbine, the folks behind Lord of the Rings Online now embraces this business model as they re-launched Dungeons and Dragons Online as a free to play game back in June, 2009.

Except for the fact that free to play games are just getting better, another reason for the tredency is that they’re free! Just as MMORPGs are getting better and better, so are MMOs. With so many great free MMOFPS games like Alliance of Valiant Arms and K.O.S. Secret Operations why on Earth should gamers cough up $50-$60 for a new console or PC shooter? It made sense 2-3 years ago when there really weren’t any high quality free to play shooters out there, but today there’s no reason to pay for any FPS. buy Metin2 Yang As more and more traditional game developers jump on the free to play bandwagon, free to play will soon replace the current pay to play model. This could still be a few years away, but I definitely see free to play going mainstream.