Team Fortress 2 = Free-to-play Forever

[epmode]

There's a free week going on at the moment but the game becomes permanently free later tonight I think. It coincides with a huge content update and a new Meet The video.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...s-free-forever

Valve has once again turned to Team Fortress 2 as the studio’s outlet for experimentation, this time with a daring move to make the triple-A game entirely free to play.

The Orange Box game has undergone a radical transformation since its 2007 release; with more than 200 updates made to the PC edition. But today’s patch is billed as the most daring yet, with PC and Mac customers given the 'full experience' without ever needing to pay anything at all.

And in an exclusive interview with Develop – now live – Valve’s Robin Walker assured that Team Fortress 2 would only be monetised by microtransaction payments.

No advertising model will be pursued, Walker said. No premium subscription model will be used. No cynical “pay-to-win” options will be implemented, he assured.

In-game items will now be the only way Valve gets any money from Team Fortress 2. But again, Walker assured that the number of gratis in-game items – which are released on a daily basis – would not dry up.

“We've been toying with the idea of making Team Fortress free-to-play ever since the Mann-conomy update [in September 2010],” Walker said.

“The data we got back from that update leads us to believe that TF2 would be more successful as a completely free product.”

[MechDeus]

“The data we got back from that update leads us to believe that TF2 would be more successful as a completely free product.”

I'm really surprised more companies don't do this. It's been pretty consistent for years now that unless your subscriber base is the size of WoW's, free-to-play online games often turn a bigger profit than pay games. Well, by more companies I mean more Western companies, as Japan and Korea release practically everything like that.

[epmode]

[bVork]

I'm really surprised more companies don't do this. It's been pretty consistent for years now that unless your subscriber base is the size of WoW's, free-to-play online games often turn a bigger profit than pay games. Well, by more companies I mean more Western companies, as Japan and Korea release practically everything like that.

But TF2 has never used a subscription model.

[MechDeus]

But TF2 has never used a subscription model.

It still makes more money than many non-blockbuster retail products. By pay I meant money up front, not just subscription games.

[Opaque]

EDIT: Wait, do they mean new players can just download the game for free? That's pretty fucking cool, but when the game was only like $5 before so I'd have to think that anyone who didn't buy it then isn't going to play it now and then spend money on accessories and keys that cost as much as the game used to.

[Tain]

make TFC free, for shits.

[Compass]

This makes me not want to play it. Which I'm already doing. So nothing's changed.

It also occurs to me gaming needs a boutique class of product. Like, a multiplayer FPS that costs $100/month to play. Marketed like it's the Ferrari of multiplayer experiences.

[Opaque]

Like, a multiplayer FPS that costs $100/month to play. Marketed like it's the Ferrari of multiplayer experiences.

You know who would play this? Everyone who hates dealing with hackers, little kids and people who scream and act like assholes; the player base would be small enough that it could be policed and stupid fucking kids aren't going to be able to afford it. They'd have to crank out new maps every single month at no additional charge, but people would fucking play it if it was as good as CoD or Battlefield.

That or it would fail, terribly. Fuck, though, it would be neat to see someone ballsy enough to try.

[Uriel]

You know who would play this? Everyone who hates dealing with hackers, little kids and people who scream and act like assholes; the player base would be small enough that it could be policed and stupid fucking kids aren't going to be able to afford it. They'd have to crank out new maps every single month at no additional charge, but people would fucking play it if it was as good as CoD or Battlefield.

That or it would fail, terribly. Fuck, though, it would be neat to see someone ballsy enough to try.

No matter what the game offers, the overwhelming indignation in the gaming community over a company having the balls to offer a game at such a price wold drown it. People still argue over $5 a month for Live. Passing something over isn't enough for people, they have to hate it and do what they can to make others hate it too.