Crytek: All our future games will be free-to-play

[garyopa]

Also, they say Premium services are 'milking customers to death'



According to Crytek CEO, the company future output will solely consist of triple-A free-to-play games...

Well, it looks like Crysis 3 will be Crytek's last 'full game', as the studio future output will solely consist of triple-A free-to-play games, CEO Cevat Yerli said.

Also, he lamented the rise of DLC and premium gaming services, which he considers to be "milking customers to death".

Seems that, Warface -Crytek Kiev's multiplayer FPS- will be the company's first foray into the F2P sector. And, once Crytek has completed its current contracts with traditional boxed products, its studios will only produce F2P titles, which will be supported by its new social gaming platform, GFACE.

"As we were developing console games we knew, very clearly, that the future is online and free-to-play," said Yerli.

"Right now we are in the transitional phase of our company, transitioning from packaged goods games into an entirely free-to-play experience.

"What this entails is that our future, all the new games that we're working on, as well new projects, new platforms and technologies, are designed around free-to-play and online, with the highest quality development."

He wants Crytek's games to stand out from the current crop of F2P titles, by aiming triple-A production standards.

"As is evident in Warface, our approach is to ensure the best quality, console game quality," he said. "That implies budgets of between $10m to $30m - so no compromise there - but at the price-point of $0 entry.

"I think this is a new breed of games that has to happen to change the landscape, and be the most user-friendly business model."

He added that, he is not a fan of the premium models adopted by the likes of Activision and EA:

"If you look at what kind of games are done in the packaged goods market, with DLCs and premium services and whatnot, it's literally milking the customers to death."

Warface is currently live in Russia, and its at closed beta stage in China.

There's no word yet on when the game will be out in NA/Europe, but it will be published by "Trion Worlds".

NEWS SOURCE: Crytek all our future games will be free to play (via) VideoGamer

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[tech3475]

At times like this, I'm glad I have a large backlog of SP games to keep me going.

[Battlefield]

At times like this, I'm glad I have a large backlog of SP games to keep me going.

Same here.. I have shitloads of games on Steam, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Android, Windows Phone 7.5 etc..

Free 2 play seems to be a good thing, but it depends on how limited it is. Some F2P games is useless unless you fork out shitloads of cash.. I mean alot more than it would cost at retail.

[msanchez]

...Some F2P games is useless unless you fork out shitloads of cash.. I mean alot more than it would cost at retail.

Looking at you Android devs with your "free" games. Look just charge me $5 - 10 and don't make me have to suffer through ads, or having to buy food in the game with real money. There's no way that I'll be enthralled by a game that much that I will spend real money for in-game items... NO FREAKING WAY!

As far as the announcement... it sucks, but I rather they also charge a sane amount for their games. If I gotta deal with ads, or other annoyances I'm not going to be part of the whole free2play deal. In any case this is not really of too much concern to me; not unless they are planning on releasing single player games.

[Battlefield]

Looking at you Android devs with your "free" games. Look just charge me $5 - 10 and don't make me have to suffer through ads, or having to buy food in the game with real money. There's no way that I'll be enthralled by a game that much that I will spend real money for in-game items... NO FREAKING WAY!

As far as the announcement... it sucks, but I rather they also charge a sane amount for their games. If I gotta deal with ads, or other annoyances I'm not going to be part of the whole free2play deal. In any case this is not really of too much concern to me; not unless they are planning on releasing single player games.

I would never pay for ingame items myself. The reason is the insane prices. 50$ for a nice sword. 100$ for a unique gun in a 5$ game? Thats like WTF.

The common deal in Android games is this too... Buy 30.000 Gems/coins for 100$.. Those gems is usually not even much and you cant get much for them ingame.

As for console / PC games i would rather pay 50$ +/- for a retail game which i already do.
Real money for ingame currency? No way.
Some of the free games isnt even free, because you can barely play it before you need to pay real money for ingame items.

I think ingame purchasing may be even worse than online passes.

[msanchez]

...I think ingame purchasing may be even worse than online passes.

You think?... YOU THINK?! You know satan, hitler, and napoleon (and George W. Bush was a mediator, but that's a seperate story) had a meeting in hell... guess what came out of that meeting? micro-transactions my friend; the ultimate evil that the powers that be are attempting to force down our throats (or anus).

It kills me everytime I see a gamevil game that is free, because I know what will happen. Though in all honesty, gamevil is one of the more classy devs with this free2play thing; their games are still perfectly completeable without having to spend any money, but still... I just hate knowing I won't be able to get 100% completition unless I buy a sword with real money.

[Battlefield]

You think?... YOU THINK?! You know satan, hitler, and napoleon (and George W. Bush was a mediator, but that's a seperate story) had a meeting in hell... guess what came out of that meeting? micro-transactions my friend; the ultimate evil that the powers that be are attempting to force down our throats (or anus).

It kills me everytime I see a gamevil game that is free, because I know what will happen. Though in all honesty, gamevil is one of the more classy devs with this free2play thing; their games are still perfectly completeable without having to spend any money, but still... I just hate knowing I won't be able to get 100% completition unless I buy a sword with real money.

Hehe.. I only buy new retail games which comes with online passes included, so it doesent annoy me that much.

As for micro transactions.. thats some nasty f*****g **** of course.

I'm more scared of the prices on Android than F2P on PC. Just look at the price games like Pocket Legends, Vampires Live, Gun Bros etc.. A shitty graphixed low resolution crap sword you can barely see on screen for 100$ is just sick. Its probably not even that powerful so you can just bang your way.

Did you ever try Android/IOS games?.. Vampires LIVE, Racing Live etc..? You can play them alot, or like forever for free..but the game progression is damn slow if you dont buy anything. If you buy ingame currency, it costs 99$ for a bunch of credits which is so little that you can spend them all in 5 mins, and you still dont progress THAT much more. The *you need to spend another 99$..and so on.. Suddenly the text game costs 1000$ for stupid people. The game only have some icons. Its text based, turn based MMORPG!!! Thats not the worst part..The game is auto balanced, so you are kinda getting the same difficulty for months. It feels like you are playing at level 1 forever. (Oh yes, i tried this. I got a little hooked, but never spent **** in it of course.

When we get too many F2P games, it will wear off because of the big competition.. They will need to find a new way to earn money.
Overall the best and most stable way for most devs, is to release it as a "50$ game" perhaps like its always been.

[billysastard]

Hehe.. I only buy new retail games which comes with online passes included, so it doesent annoy me that much.

so you don't have a family where other members might want to play your game? and you never trade in games to buy new ones so dont care that the game you bought new has been devalued intentionally by the publisher? and you want to reward and encourage them for doing **** like this by giving them your money?

[Battlefield]

so you don't have a family where other members might want to play your game? and you never trade in games to buy new ones so dont care that the game you bought new has been devalued intentionally by the publisher? and you want to reward and encourage them for doing **** like this by giving them your money?

I only have a wife, and she doesent play much games. I never trade games, because Gamestop is too greedy here. Used games there mostly costs more than a new facory sealed at some competitor. Preordering of new games is up to 50% off, so games is way cheaper if you buy games on day 1.

When thats said, most games i bought with online passes in 2012 is usually in bargain bin anyway so they dont earn much money on me. Last year i bought a few full at price with passes thou. I refuse to buy a single player game with online pass, but also EA games unless its 10$ ones because they will shut down the server in 1-2 years anyway unless its Battlefield. Oh.. I just bought Tom Clancy GR Future Soldier with 45% off on preordering, because i really wanted it. The online is good too in this one, and so far i havent noticed lame asses and cheaters in it like in Battlefield and COD.

[msanchez]

...Did you ever try Android/IOS games?...

I've been rocking Android phones since pre-launch day of the G1 since for some odd reason I got mine 5 days before the official launch so yeah I have tried. That's why I mentioned Gamevil. They are the guys responsible for the Zenonia series which I'm a huge fan, but last 2 games have been free to play, and while great, I would hae given them$5 jjust like I did for their other games.