Sony’s emphasis on free-to-play could give it the edge

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   November 6th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Dust 514 dev, CCP, and Crysis dev, CryTek both laud the publisher for pushing the new business model, which they believe to be the future of the gaming industry.

The video game industry is at a number of important cross roads at the moment. It is set to see a number of changes on various fronts in what could define the way games are made, distributed and played.

A number of developers are already talking about ‘aaa’ titles as opposed to the blockbuster, big budget ‘AAA’ titles being the future, while EA is already showing an increase in digital sales and almost every publisher is looking to grab a share of the free-to-play market.

It is in the latter that Sony is receiving the most plaudits from developers who are currently working on to bring the business model to the front. Sony already has Free Realms and DC Universe Online on offer and recently released a free-to-play version of SingStar as well.

However, the publisher’s main hopes rest on CCP’s ambitious title Dust 514. The first-person shooter will link Eve Online players on the PC to those who play Dust 514 on the PlayStation 3.

David Reid, the head of marketing at CCP, explained how it was logical for Sony to be pushing into new territories and experimenting as he recalled the time he spent with the Xbox. He said, “It’s natural that the console challenger is going to be more ambitious and take more risks than the leader. Last generation I was at Xbox and we were having our arses handed to us. And Xbox was the one that was trying to do crazy things with Xbox LIVE and so on.”

Reid continued, “Five years later, things have changed and now Sony is being more aggressive. It is a cynical business and it feels like we’re coming around to another big turn again.”

At the same time, Cevat Yerli, the CEO of Crytek, the studio behind the Crysis games, is also looking to push into the freemium business model and singled Sony out for special credit. “Sony making that game is a great step forward, and they should be applauded. If Sony embraces free-to-play as a major way for PlayStation, that could be the key console.”

At this point in time EA seems to be the biggest promoter of free-to-play games with Battlefield Heroes and World of Tanks the studio’s most well-known titles. EA is also pushing the business model on social platforms such as Facebook. The Sims Social and other games may be free to play but EA has microtransactions in place as a revenue stream and one can expect Sony to have the same model set up when Dust 514 releases on consoles some time next year.