The Demise of Free-To-Play Games?

"Will you be spending money on games that used to be free? A writer on GigaOm states that Free-To-Play games have had their day. How does that affect gamers and the companies designing games? I talked to two experts, Denny Thorley, GM of Wargaming West and Andrew Schneider, CEO of LiveGamer about the shift in gaming."

[kratoz1209]

War Thunder, Warframe, DC universe and Planetside 2 are solid FPS

[il-JumperMT]

F2P is the cancer of industry. It means Pay to win which will make games cost more then proper retail games. It needs to die and morons need to stop supporting them.

Its said when games like Candy Crush Saga does more profit then full retail games due to microtransection shit.

[FamilyGuy]

You have no idea what you're talking about.
Not all F2P games are designed the same and many of them make money off of people that like to customize things or are too impatient to level up naturally in the free route.

Did you know/ever think about PS Home and how it made millions off of costumes but at its base all it is was a free to play mini game lobby with avatars?

No one had to pay anything to launch games or interact with friends, the ones that did pay did so because they chose to.
These same rules apply to some F2P games where you can enjoy the game free and choose to pay if you feel like it. It works best in co-operative games as that eliminates part of the pay to win aspect seen in competitive f2p games.

For the argument of "spending more than you would on a retail game." It's the same as buying DLC. DLC can add up to $1000s if you buy everything that pops up.
Any responsible person that actually cared about spending more than retail pricing would simply allot themselves a budget and cap it at that retail amount.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the F2P model.
It can be done fairly and people can show restraint with their spending.

[stavrami-mk2]

no you have no idea f2p games gameplay always suffers however much someone likes war frame/thunder or whatever if it was built as a retail game the gameplay would be better in every single f2p I've played

[JoseV76]

Its sad these companies are nickle and diminng us now with this crap, and most of the games are garbage!

[mhunterjr]

f2p isn't necessarily evil. It's the abuse of the scheme. Team fortress 2 does it right.