Gamasutra- "Happy Wars" is not exactly a stand-out name for a video game, yet this newly launched Xbox Live Arcade title is rather special -- it's the Xbox 360's first ever free-to-play title.
Given how long free-to-play has been around (and has been dominating video game headlines), it's taken a while for Microsoft's current home console to take note of the industry curve and jump in at the deep end. The big question, of course, is whether or not the free-to-play business model will work on Microsoft's console.
Happy Wars is a casual multi-player action game in which a large number of players control comical characters in fun battles.
5 years of support for a free to play 360 game is pretty solid. i use to play it with my kids but moved to the xbox one version when it released. Fun game
yea, looks like a solid run, and you can still play on your Xbox One, so have fun :)
Toylogic Inc. is holding "The Third Anniversary: Three Big Campaigns" to celebrate the third year for "Happy Wars" on Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions from October 22 (Thursday) to November 17 (Tuesday).
Andrew Gonzalez from Xbox Enthusiast writes about the multitude of Free To Play titles on the Xbox One as well as which games from the list are definitely worth playing.
So is this free for anyone on XBL or gold members? Because if its the latter, then its technically not really "free-to-play".
Ahhh comments sections like these remind me of the days of PSN+ emerging.
The whole issue of are the games free or part of a service.
However, XBLG has just added the free to play game project. Before today gold was still there and had X amount of services. This is a new one....and no additional charge.
So yes, it isn't free because you need to pay to play it.
But no, it is free because you are not paying anything within the service and getting more content.
Similar arguments could be made for PSN+.
Either way, just game and get over it.
The whole 'free' not being free thing applies to both Xbox and PS3 in my opinion.
For PS+, you pay for the service but get free games from doing so. This wouldn't strictly be considered free.
Same goes for these so called 'free to play' games. You have to pay for gold before you can play for free.
Just as an opinion, I wouldn't necessarily either free because you have to give something to receive something.
Xbox Live Gold is a paid premium service. Happy Wars is part of that service. The game itself is absolutely free if you have Xbox Live Gold. The big difference to this and PSN+ is that once you have the game with XBL, and if you decide not to renew your Gold, you'll still have the game.
I like to think of this as an extra step in getting Gold Members more value. I have never paid more than $35 for a year of Gold, in the last couple of months I've gotten 3 free games. Mars Rover, Haunt and Happy Wars. I'm more than happy with the service and the only people complaining are those well known PS3 trolls that try and battle semantics unsuccessfully.
I don't even know what this game is about, but it's free so I'm trying it.