The model free-to-play drive to impose it on the platform games? This system, born in Asia, and allows free access to the game, but whose contents are additional fee, continues to gain ground. Last week, Valve is the leader in digital distribution with Steam on PC, which began this transition. Team Fortress 2, the famous shooter with cartoony graphics, has adopted the model free-to-play, allowing players to acquire new weapons including, for a few dollars.
Mid-June, Valve had already announced an integration of free-to-play in several titles available on Steam, such as role-playing online Forsaken Worlds. NC Soft leading publisher of South Korea, had also made a similar announcement for its online game City of Heroes.
But the movement could go beyond the platform for PC gaming. According to Develop, Microsoft is also trying to forge business partnerships to develop this model to the console X-Box 360. According to the specialized site, monetization could be done through the sale of virtual items in the game, or additional features. The U.S. group declined to comment.
In fact the free-to-play has begun to break above last year in Western countries. To halt the loss of players, many game publishers massively multi-player opted for the free-to-play. Titles such as EverQuest 2 Extended or even Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine's studio, and have experienced this transition. Electronic Arts, a leading "traditional" game industry tries also to the free-to-play in games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online for example.
But the success of titles on social networks such as securities "city" of Zynga, with tens of millions of monthly users, is also an important showcase for free-to-play. In a title like Farmville, users have free access to the game, but can pay for virtual seeds.
