Free vs Freemium vs Upfront games (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Monday, March 05, 2018, 15:10 (2252 days ago) @ cheapLEY

It's really tough to say, but I was having a conversation with Malagate (or Galvan_Eyes, depending on your platform) last night about the future of games in a "post Destiny 2 screwup" world, and we came to the conclusion that a "piece-meal feature" world where things such as maps are free, but optional features (such as a photo mode) are bought and supported straight from the devs themselves, was the ideal solution. An extreme example of this already exists: players wanted DE to sell a Premium cosmetics bundle in Warframe, so DE posed the question to the community: What do you guys want in the bundle, and how much should it cost?
Seriously. Even Jim Sterling was taken aback. So yeah, the developer put the power in the players' hands, and it's all in the name of supporting a free game.

Can you see that working with traditional story based games? Like Horizon: Zero Dawn or The Witcher 3 for example? I just don’t know how it would work and still feel like a pleasant and seamless experience. Or do those just stay as traditional pay $60 and then you get the whole game?

I mean, the $60 experiences have been at a bit of an odd spot, though games like Nier: Automata and Persona 5 have shown that even a seemingly niche title can find huge success here in the states if the game itself is good (and look at the Yakuza series, which has borderline zero marketing in the US).

HZD is a game that provided a great and complete experience, but they decided to include Photo Mode at launch, then continued to build on it for free. It was great, but if they had decided to charge for the Photo Mode improvements, I wouldn't have hesitated to pay. I'd happily pay if I knew that I was directly supporting future features for the photo mode, and I'd be using my wallet to show Guerilla that yes, more Photo Mode content is something that players are willing to pay for.

I look at games like Gravity Rush 2, where small experiments and side projects lead to that game's photo mode, where you can place objects in the game world, set up your shot, then upload your image to be reviewed by other players, which rewards you with in-game unlocks if people give your photo a thumb's up. They were going to disable this feature in January, but so many people bought the game during the holiday sale, that they decided to extend the social services until July of this year.

I'd like to see something like this in more $60 games. If Bungie decided to make and sell a Photo Mode in Destiny 2, they could let the sales of it speak for themselves. They'd possibly see "hey, we sold ten thousand copies of the Photo Mode, leading to $x amount of profit, so we should/shouldn't invest more into this optional feature!
And it's not just photo mode. How about instead of Loot Boxes, you sell individual emotes. How about instead of Random Ghosts, they sell a variety of designs, from the original, to the bulbous, to something like Sagira, and let players decide which one they want, to see what designs are the most popular. Same for Ships, Sparrows, and even shader collections. What if Bluerunner could just buy a "Bluestreak Shader Bundle" that included a few different Blue + Silver styles, so that he could mix and match them for his gear?

I’m playing a lot of Elite: Dangerous still, and the way that game does it still bugs me. It’s $60 to get the base game plus the expansion. That’s fair, there’s a ton of content there, and it’s supported well. They offer tons of cosmetics that you can only get with actual money. There’s no way to earn anything in game (with the exception of a small set of ship decals based on your current rank). Each ship has what are essentially body kits you can buy, there’s clothes and accessories for your pilot, and then ship paint jobs. Hell, you even have to pay to be able to put the name of your ship on the side. I don’t mind them charging for shiny things, but there is literally zero customization of you don’t give them more money after the initial $60 purchase. There’s not even a basic color selectionbfir your ship—even single colors are sold in packs. And you have to buy them individually per ship. It’s really sleazy.

Yeah, that's pretty weak. They could have at least done something like this: