It’s an undeniable fact that the gaming industry is quickly changing, especially in the last few years where different business models were introduced to some degree of success. The free to play model seems like it’s the way to go for future massive online games, offering the most basic features for free and most of the premium content for a price.
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President, has spoke about the free to play model in a recent interview with the Japanese Newspaper Nikkei: Iwata san, strictly speaking about the most important Nintendo franchises like Mario and Pokemon, doesn’t want to introduce such features in Nintendo Games. Nintendo has only recently started implementing paid DLC in its games, something the company is pretty happy about: the full game must be available from the start and the optional content must stay as it is called, optional. So players can be sure that they won’t see any micro transaction in a Pokemon game.
Iwata san, however, opens up to the free to play model for new franchises: he doesn’t see this as a betrayal, but a new idea which may give developers more freedom. The free to play model could be a good way to make a new franchise develop in the best way possible.
Source: Eurogamer
