The free-to-play model has developed into one of the most dominant demographics in gaming, and it may be powerful enough to swallow the console industry whole if they do not change.
free to play is like the worst model because you only get like half the game and then you need to keep paying monthly fees which ends up being more expensive than a full retail game.
Some give you a fraction of the game and charge for the rest, others have microtransactions, others have an eventual monthly charge, others use ads, others have a combination of the above. It's great because it allows you to try out a game before buying. It also means if someone robs your house they can't take any of your stuff since it's in a cloud. It also means if your system breaks down and you're only allowed to have your games registered on so many consoles, you lose everything and have to buy everything all over again - that's if you can't unregister an old console. They really need to fix that on PS3 as you can only have 2 consoles registered to the same user ID, and thus the same games. Could you imagine with the rate of certain console hardware failures how many people would be losing everything?
"It also means if your system breaks down and you're only allowed to have your games registered on so many consoles, you lose everything and have to buy everything all over again - that's if you can't unregister an old console. They really need to fix that on PS3 as you can only have 2 consoles registered to the same user ID, and thus the same games."
FYI, you can deactivate all your PS3, PSP and PSV systems online from your PC regardless of whether the systems work anymore or not.
Once you deactivate your console, the downloaded games won't work on that one anymore. To get them working on another console, sign in on your account and activate the new console. Done.
BOTTOM LINE:many consolers (not all of them) know ZERO or are such stubborn fanboys that they refuse to listen to LOGIC!
F2P is whats coming to console Next Gen for SOME games NOT ALL and I wish I could save all these post to throw back in your faces Next console Gen when your playing MMO'S and F2P games on your X720 or PS4!
Yes retail games will still be sold but Sony and MS want more cash so F2P and Digital Distribution will allow them to make more money like how the PC does!
.Dust514 is already F2P on the PS3 .Xbox and PSN arcade are here because of PC Digital Distribution. .Every other Console game is a FPS because of the High success of FPS on the PC. .Call of Duty was a PC Exclusive and now it's the most successful game on the consoles EVER! .Online MUltiplayer came about because of PC Gaming
PC sets the trends that consoles copy. It's not a matter of what's better it's a matter of Business and how it's always been!
and so many Consolers talking about the F2P business model when most of you have NEVER played a F2P game!
I never talk about stuff i dont know about so why do "SOME" consolers without gaming PC make up lies and false facts about F2P gaming when they can't even run Team Fortress 2 let alone Crysis PC?
Stop making up lies about stuff you don't even play!
If it weren't because I surf through sites like these I honestly wouldn't here about this free-to-play model. Doubt next gen consoles will be in danger. Unless our favorite franchises just vanish these consoles will pretty much stay.
Didn't bother reading the article when I heard it was the examiner. An interesting topic if these guys seem to have taken the completely wrong approach to it.
I have to say it might be the last. Launching a new console is more dangerous than ever and could squander the current console's profits. If Microsoft or Sony abandon their 360/PS3 so soon after launching their new console, their games divisions might be in hot water.
League of Legends is F2P and has over 13 million Gamers!!!
Battlefieldplay4free and Need 4 Speed World make EA several million dollars a month and both are F2p!
World of Warcraft is now F2P up to a certain Level
F2P is the most DOMINANT way to make money in the Video Game industry right now and everyone including Consoles is adopting the format!
Perfect example: APB was Dead in the water until the Devs remade the game to take advantage of the F2P format and now APB is turning a nice profit EVERY MONTH!!
Another Example: Nexon the makers of many F2P titles like Maple Story, Dragon Nest, and Vindictus makes a Billion Dollars yearly from F2P games and the company at any time could BUY Electronic Arts!!!
So The Next and last console gen expect to see a lot of F2P games especially with the influx of MMO's that will hit the consoles Next Gen!
Remember the PC sets the trends and the consoles follow!!
You are forgetting something that titles like COD are primarily PC breed, FPS genre itself came from PC gaming. Multiplayer gaming, Indie gaming are all dominant on the consoles which originated on PC . Nobody plays JPRGS and 2D Platformers on consoles.
Console gaming always try to mimic PC gaming some 5 years later.
You talk about COD as if I cared. I can't begin to tell you just how little I care about most FPS games in general.
"Nobody plays JRPGs and platformers on consoles".... What!? You guys gotta step out of your little world every once in a while.
And you're off topic. This is about free-to-play dominating consoles, which is not happening anytime soon. If I felt like doing that I would simply turn on my PC, but I choose not to.
There's no chance this is going to happen. Free to play is basically a scam. Unless its some type of basic flash tennis game, there is always money driven add ons. Also there's an article on cnn.com about this garbage, where they are so focused on the down slide of the market compared to last year, not that it couldn't be this generation has grown long in the tooth and we are now due for new one
The OP knows nothing about the free to play model. There are more games coming out that don't require you to pay for anything other than cosmetic stuff like Dota 2 and it is already the most played game on Steam and it is in a closed beta. Crytek has stated after the next Crysis they are going all free to play with all of their future products. Also look at a whole list of games, especially MMOs, that were full priced games that flopped buy easily kept alive once they switched to F2P.
It is a lot better to get a few $$ from millions of people vs. the money they get from selling them on store shelves. And mind you, they don't get the full $50-$60 either. That is retail cost in most cases.
If this were the last generation it wouldn't be due to Free to play. It would be because of the high cost of AAA games and the rate of which developers and publishers are closing their doors.
I agree this current gen game costs are already high enough plus the fact that game take alot longer compared to before thus also making games even more expensive to develop.
This gen you can already see the effect on Japanese developers because of the development cycle for games this gen like Capcom who were arguably the best 3rd party developer last gen and Square as their a lot smaller compared to western developers, most western developers are financed by major publishers like EA, Activision etc. Japan doesn't have anything like that, largest 3rd party publisher in Japan is probably square and their not as big as EA etc.
Most Japanese developers are focused on handheld games, because its cheaper to developers and much quicker compared to console, the most recent successful Japanese developer is Level 5, their success does not come from their console titles but handheld, their major last title was WKC on PS3 and that was a flop and the quality of the game doesn't match their last gen games or handheld games.
Square/ Capcom are notoriously hated for their quality of games however they still make great games but their on handheld devices like DS, PSP etc, but they don't get much attention from western gamers who are mostly focused on consoles.
why would anyone want cloud gaming,????!! we work too hard to be settled with cloud merchandise we cant touch and value, ?? thats just dumb, i and the rest of the world want pysyical copies we can touch and keep for years and years, consoles will never go away, never.
I agree. I don't want some nonsense to happen so I can lose everything i downloaded. At least if I have a hard copy I know it's still there no matter what happens to the online system.
Exactly! Just like how no one watches movies or television shows they don't own - because they can't touch or put a value on them unless you own them. What's the point? I'm sure there are a handful of nutters out there that simply watch tv, or even rent movies without owning them, but the vast majority of people wouldn't ever touch a TV program or movie unless they owned them. And music, forget about it! Radio is an abomination. Who wants to listen to music without actually owning it? And don't get me started on libraries...
You know how idiotic you sound? No, Sarcasm at its worst, more like.
Now, Something to keep in mind. Internet bandwidth is not as fast and widespread as you'd like to think in the world. I have a 4Mbps connection, and this is better than 93% of the rest of South Asia. (Speedtest and a few research teams would confirm that.)
Yes, cloud is inevitable, however, not till everyone and by that I mean EVERYONE gets a fair share of bandwidth. Half of you people are living in your homes enjoying 50Mbps connection thinking everything's fine and dandy. Look outside your comfort zone for a moment.
I've been playing the beta for dust 514 the new FTP game on ps3. The menus and how to buy things for your epuiptment are very confusing and you have to spend real money to use voice chat. Its actually kind of annoying because you have to replenish inventory items and dropsuits and all kinds of stuff. Most can be done with in game credit but I would rather just play socom or call of duty i think.
It might be the last gen of consoles, but not likely. However, this is the last gen of handhelds. I mean the iphone 5 outsold the PS vita in a week. Samsung Galaxy also sold way more.
Of course they did. They are PHONES. Things that people need for everyday life. Dedicated gaming machines have always been niche products. Video games, like many forms of entertainment, aren't for everyone.
I dont think the next gen of gaming consoles will be the last. On the other hand I think the handhelds (DS and Vita) are in danger because of the tablets and smartphones
I agree that this isn't the last generation of consoles. for example. why would sony go out and buy sucker punch if they will only have one more console? sounds like a waste to me.
handhelds dont need replaced very often tho either. people buy the next iphone every year or two. If your buying a portable gaming device then it should last 5-10yrs just like the current gen gaming consoles.
This may be true. By 2020 cloud technology will be so advanced that there won't be a need for a PS5. Just writing "PS5" it doesn't roll off the tongue and it doesn't look good on paper either.
I do think there will be more consoles though. They'll release a tiny device(kind of like the upcoming Ouya) that will stream games over the cloud. They will just call it "Playstation".
Free to play games suck. Everything now is MMORPG, FPS, multiplayer this multiplayer that. If this is in fact true then i am going to miss awesome games such as God of War, Halo, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, etc.. basically every game since Atari days until now, and that my friends would SUCK.
"Riot operates in the online games market for virtual goods, which research group In-Stat expects to double in size to $14 billion in 2014, from $7.3 billion in 2010. " http://herocomplex.latimes....
as far as corporations are concerned I am sure they will make it there future. What are you gonna do stop playin? lol free 2 play allows everyone to come in. just sayin..
I think ps5 will be the last console. After that everything will be cloud.
You, sometime, have to wonder what's the agenda behind these articles? To convince us that F2p is the way to go, bc it isnt dominating any sort of platform at this point and I dont see a lot of gamers wanting F2p games, so what companies are pushing this formula and what gaming sites do they contribute to?
These game DEVS are really stupid i mean really? Why would this be the last generation look how many years Nintendo been making hardware game consoles and SONY? And MS just started. Don't even GIVE US SOME B.S. right now. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. Stop crying and acting like a B and make some GOOD A + GAMES instead of boring sequels
Free to play usually means it isn't worth anything. I have been playing the Dust 514 beta, it has its moments of fun but its not anything I would pay for.
"The free-to-play model has developed into one of the most dominant demographics in gaming..."
LOLOLOLOLOL Oh Examiner! Where's the money to be made in free-to-play? In microtransactions? In advertisement?
Free-to-play doesn't even dominate on PC gaming (where it originated), so why in the would would it be essential for console gaming?
If this were the last generation it wouldn't be due to Free to play. It would be because of the high cost of AAA games and the rate of which developers and publishers are closing their doors.
why would anyone want cloud gaming,????!! we work too hard to be settled with cloud merchandise we cant touch and value, ?? thats just dumb, i and the rest of the world want pysyical copies we can touch and keep for years and years, consoles will never go away, never.
I've been playing the beta for dust 514 the new FTP game on ps3. The menus and how to buy things for your epuiptment are very confusing and you have to spend real money to use voice chat. Its actually kind of annoying because you have to replenish inventory items and dropsuits and all kinds of stuff. Most can be done with in game credit but I would rather just play socom or call of duty i think.
Free to play has been happening for years now. I don't see it replacing consoles.