http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-bastards-hereThankfully, on this generation of consoles the consumer will have options, and more of them than ever before. Now that the furious back-and-forth over resolution and quality of RAM has started to subside, it's important to consider that these consoles were designed to accommodate one of the most potent disruptive forces in the recent history of the games business: free, the wallet-friendly price-point that has flourished in the open environments of PC and mobile gaming.
But is the console audience ready? Anton Yudintsev, CEO of the Russian developer Gaijin Entertainment, believes that free-to-play developers will have to raise their standards to pass muster on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. After all, console gamers are the segment of the market that harbours the most suspicion of free-to-play gaming in general, and while World of Tanks and Dust 514 have already introduced the concept on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, much more will be necessary to earn their faith.
"Console gamers are more used to the concept of buying games, premium games," Yudintsev says. "But one of the reasons for that is that there haven't been enough [free-to-play] games at a console level of quality. Well, we are a console developer. War Thunder is console quality."
Along with SOE's Planetside 2 and Zombie Studios' Blacklight: Retribution, Gaijin's War Thunder will help to make the case for free-to-play in the early life of the PlayStation 4. According to Yudintsev, the team drew on its experience making console titles like Il-2 Sturmovik, and applied the lessons in player engagement and retention evident in the very best free-to-play games. It would be foolhardy, he says, for developers to assume that the console audience will accept technical and gameplay compromises in exchange for dozens of hours of free entertainment. They won't. If free-to-play is to become a fixture for the core console audience, it will be through a combination of best practices from both schools of thought.
"In free-to-play, there is a lot of expertise in how to make a game design interesting for people to play for months, or even years - the meta-game design," he says. "But in terms of core gameplay, the production quality, technical excellence, most of them do not concentrate on that at all. There are exceptions, but most of them don't. "And that gives both sides an opportunity. They can take lessons from each other. It's a huge opportunity, and a lot of [console] developers don't see that. They either don't believe in the free-to-play model at all, or they think they know better. They know some things better, of course, but not everything."
Blacklight Retribution is mentioned but not Warframe? Damn.
20 dollars for Gambit says other wise
Warframe should have been listed in that article. I was looking forward more to Blacklight, but Warframe is FAR more polished and "console-quality" IMO. I was actually really disappointed in Blacklight and hope it improves a lot.
Really looking forward to War Thunder, though.
Really looking forward to War Thunder, though.
They're not greedy bastards? So killing off Wings of Prey's multiplayer servers was doing us a favor, then?
Blacklight looks very much like a beta game still, uneven performance and crazy bad tearing. That'll probably get ironed out in the long run, but I'd definitely point to Warframe instead as a F2P title making a respectable debut on consoles.
Anyways even at your most charitable for F2P it's clearly a design that can work with some games, but not all of them. A game like Zelda would be a nightmare with that model, and in general it seems to favor MP more than SP design.
Anyways even at your most charitable for F2P it's clearly a design that can work with some games, but not all of them. A game like Zelda would be a nightmare with that model, and in general it seems to favor MP more than SP design.
I don't care if there's greed involved on their end, players who spend more have an insane advantage in War Thunder, and I'm not paying $20 for mediocre planes.
Also this.Originally Posted by Animefreek
They're not greedy bastards? So killing off Wings of Prey's multiplayer servers was doing us a favor, then?
The current zelda as a f2p game would be so dangerous. Rent items for 99 cents, pay $5 to own it outright.Blacklight looks very much like a beta game still, uneven performance and crazy bad tearing. That'll probably get ironed out in the long run, but I'd definitely point to Warframe instead as a F2P title making a respectable debut on consoles.
Anyways even at your most charitable for F2P it's clearly a design that can work with some games, but not all of them. A game like Zelda would be a nightmare with that model, and in general it seems to favor MP more than SP design.
Buy unlimited stamia potions for $1 for one minute, faries for $2.
War Thunder is my most played game on PS4. Its awesome. Lokking forward.
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