Darren Gladstone, PC World
According to Hillary Lyons, spokesperson for Nexon America, which owns KartRider, "When [the game] launched in South Korea, it was the first big game to show that a free-to-play model can really work and only now are you seeing big companies here in the U.S. take notice."
That's no lie. The tens of millions of people that flock to this online racing game have everyone taking stabs at the free gaming space. How does one support the modern definition of a big-budget "free" game? They're using variations on the way the band Radiohead charged for its last album, "In Rainbows." They asked fans to pay what they wanted to pay for the music.
Game pricing is under discussion here in San Francisco this week at the 2008 Game Developers Conference.
Micropayments
In the case of Nexon's popular racer, you offer up microtransactions. Pay a dollar here for a different chassis, a dollar there for better acceleration, maybe a couple cents to add a rear-view mirror Jack-in-the-Box dangly.
Lean, hungry, and small firms dabble with projects and gain varying degrees of success. Titles like War Rock have courted action gamers with a free-to-play, pay-to-upgrade model for years. But eyes are now on megapublisher Electronic Arts and noted developer Id Software (behind the Doom, Quake, and Enemy Territory games).
In the case of EA's newly announced Battlefield Heroes, though, it's a combination of ideas. Capitalizing on the franchise's frantic multiplayer matches, the plan is to have a microtransaction mechanic in-game and advertisements in the pre-match screens (no in-game billboards proclaiming, "This war brought to you by...").
"Honestly," says Crowley, "this is where the future of gaming lies. Why make someone pay for a game if they don't have to?" Obviously other people think the same way.
If Battlefield Heroes and Quake Live prove to be success stories, more publishers and developers won't be far behind. We know for a fact that many more have plans in motion (Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming free MMO, Free Realms, comes to mind).
So, can you look forward to a day when kids aren't bugging you to buy them the newest game? We can dream.
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