AAA games shifting to free-to-play, says Happy Wars dev

On Friday, Japanese developer Toylogic will launch Happy Wars, the first free-to-play game on Xbox Live. And according to Toylogic president Yoichi Take, it's just the latest example of the booming business model expanding into new territory.

"I believe it is quite natural that people will gather to play games for free," Take told GamesIndustry International. "I predict that, moving forward, even triple-A titles will be shifting toward Play-for-Free. However, there are game designs that can only be realized as package titles, so I feel that package games and the Play-for-Free model will coexist, and indeed I welcome their coexistence."

[ThatsGaming]

Yep, publishers are going to spend $100 million to develop a AAA free-to-play game and hope they get their money back...

BS. No publisher or investor would be dumb enough to take that kind of a chance.

[Edward75]

This game is actually fun, and playing co-op with friends take a bit of the "pay to be elite only". Because you can play against the CPU. My friends and I are enjoying it for free! The good thing is if we get bored of it, we invested 0 dollars in it.

[smashcrashbash]

What is the point of that if you can just buy a game normally and get all that stuff and not worry about paying to be elite or any garbage like that? What is the point just playing as far as you can go and just tossing the game aside every time? It's like playing an incomplete game. It's not really free and it even more annoying then DLC. If all games became like this it would be a disaster.

[Edward75]

If you read the article it talks about both types "co-existing". And you do have a single player mode in this game. No cash is needed to beat it. So you can enjoy playing it for a bit, beating the story mode, playing with your friends against the CPU... All those nothing is needed. You only need to pay extra to be elite if you play against others. And even then, a good team can overcome in many situations. But remember smash, this is just one type of game.... Read the article. CO-EXIST!

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Cool More AAA F2P games for me then I'll take it.

[kasasensei]

In the future, all basic games packages will be free.
When we look at the long term support (aka >18months) of all the games we bought, it becomes necessary to get them for the lowest amount of cash possible, because we just don't know for how long we will be able to use them.
See how MS, Sony, Apple and Nintendo have total control over our games and offer no guaranty of any kind that we'll be able to continue using our legally purchased and activated games & contents on their networks. Use your cash wisely people.

[ChunkyLover53]

I kind of doubt this is true, those AAA titles cost millions to make, you also have some devs like the ones at 343i saying AAA titles aren't going anywhere. I think both F2P and AAA titles can co-exist.

[Nac]

F2P, aka, "The Nickel and Dime" approach.

[3-4-5]

There will never be one or the other.

They co-exist.....just like all things in life do. There is room for both of these models and many more.

More diversity is good.

some expensive titles, some cheap titles, some free to play...it all works together to give us options.

Options are good.