It’ll become a ”content/quality competition” between the F2P and retail markets. Pressure for ”initial quality” in online games is lower than retail triple-A.
That means we come to accept that online PC releases will be improved overtime ”bit by bit, together with the community,” notes Cevat Yerli. ”This is incredibly customer-friendly and so it is what the whole market become.” Incomplete but free-to-play titles… ?
”The user is king. Over the next years a significant number of online PC Games will enter the market and due to that big amount of games, the quality pressure is going to rise in these markets, as it is now in the PC retail Market,” continued the studio boss.
”The current price competition between retail and F2P Market will evolve into a content/ quality competition within the F2P Market only – similar to today’s retail market. Consequently both, the costs and the quality will reach a AAA level.”
”Since gamers thus basically get AAA games for free, the complete traditional retail PC Game market breaks down. After a while gamers will then see a major progress in gaming quality overall again in the PC Gaming Market,” he added.
How do the studios intend to make money? Premium content purchases. ”The community is key to the success, specifically the amount of free-to-play users that a developer is able to transform into buyers. An average 5-10% of all online PC game users buy premium content in the form of special items, boosters, etc. via micro transactions.” That, or adverts.
”I am convinced that in the medium term, all leading PC game developers will serve the free-to-play market and turn their backs on the retail market,” he summed up. Will free-to-play inevitably swallow the PC gaming scene and steer its future?
