I'm not sure I understand (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, May 08, 2014, 14:01 (3852 days ago) @ Beorn

New Unreal Tournament Announced, Will Be Totally Free

This makes me a happy girl. Spent hours on the Xbox version years and years ago. Can't wait!

Feel free to chalk it up to ignorance on my part, but I don't understand how "crowdsourcing" the development of a game like this is going to work. Feels more like a publicity stunt than anything of actual value…

Yeah it's dumb. They say there are no microtransactions, but that's exactly what this is. The only difference is you are buying maps and skins or whatever else made by some random person, versus by Epic. I'm betting the marketplace will be the only way to add stuff to the game, killing all the free modding you could do in UT2004.

Why are developers so hesitant to simply charge money for the game and call it a day?

This decline of a once 'hardcore' franchise is indicative of the sad state of the industry as a whole.