I hope everyone’s midterms went well, and that you are well on your way to recovering from Hell week (if your program has Hell Week of course). What better way to wind off some steam than to play some video games? This issue I’ll be talking about the Freemium model for video game releases and its miss-use in a recent game and Microsoft’s new Glass system.
First of all, I’m sure many people have played a Free-To-Play game, especially since Team Fortress 2 joined their ranks. Most of these games are supported by the purchase of in-game items through ‘micro-transactions’ rather than an upfront price tag. In many cases this is a great way for a company to make money, and for gamers to play a great game. TF2, for example, is a great game even without any extras, so the gamers who don’t want to shell out any extra money can play the whole game and never pay a dime. But players who want to dress up their character or get special items can go to town, customizing the different classes. In the same way that mobile gaming has become so popular, I think micro transactions owe a large part of the business to the human mentality. This meaning that spending $1 each for an item is better than spending $20 for a group of them, even if you end up buying 30 individual items. Despite this potential trap of spending a lot more than you really intended, I personally think that the video game industry needs to realize that people are sick of paying $60 for a game and never seeing any advancement or watching other players dwindle online. Releasing a game for a reduced cost (or even as a free to play format), then supporting it through its lifetime with new modes, missions, storylines, weapons/tools, and any other extras they can think of would allow for more people to join the game in the first place. Thus, this makes it worthwhile for new players to join partway through and help retain a larger portion of the gamers as there is always something new to play.
Then again, there are the companies that miss the point entirely and doom their games from the beginning. For example, Forza Horizon is a new racing game that was just recently released, featuring amazing locales and shifting day-night lighting. Cars within the game can be purchased using car tokens with real world value, approximately $1 each. So the best cars cost the most, but then shouldn’t the game cost less? Nope, the game is still a full $60. There’s no point annoying the gamers with reminders in-game that they can easily buy that faster car for just a few dollars more when they already paid for the game. While gamers have gotten used to additional DLC giving new vehicles or maps, it’s different when the game starts asking for more money. What would happen if the game was released as a free-to-play model instead? Most likely, a much larger user base would develop both for racing and for the great vehicle custom paint portion of Forza, and the real die-hard players would shell out the cash for the best cars. Implementing a rank system would help ensure that similarly skilled gamers were matched for races instead of having a free player racing someone with the best car in the game.
Hopefully, big game companies will catch on to the realization that supporting a game through micro-transactions is a viable market strategy, and perhaps a smarter way to go in the current economy. How many times have two or more games come out in the same month and you suddenly find yourself shelling out over $120 for the new games? What if the game costs $20 for the basic version, in which you could upgrade your weapons in-game as you wanted? Game companies could release a season pass deal for DLC and weapons – by paying the extra $40 you are guaranteed to get all the extras as they are released, with no need for further micro transactions if you prefer. The possibilities are endless – let’s just hope the big game companies don’t ignore the business models of mobile games and suffer in the future.
On to Microsoft Smartglass, which is available now as part of the company’s Windows 8 release. Now, I’m not really sure what I think of Windows 8 as it seems too much like a dumbed down mobile browser than a PC operating system. I don’t think I’ll be switching from Windows 7 any time soon. The program I am interested in is Microsoft Smartglass, which currently works on Windows 8, Android, and iOS devices. The program enables a tablet or phone to interact with an Xbox 360 and use the attached monitor/television as a secondary screen for games and apps like movies and Internet Explorer. I’m really interested to see how companies implement this new technology and how it will affect the future growth of the Xbox brand. Imagine having your entire screen clear when playing an adventure type game and having an interactive version of the game map and complete info on your inventory on your tablet. Or maybe, offer play selection for the next NFL during multiplayer, no more watching your opponent to make sure they aren’t sneaking a look at your next rushing play.
I think the real benefit of Glass is that it doesn’t require any new hardware as it uses the hardware you already have. The first response to the NFL example I gave would probably be that passing a tablet back and forth would be too annoying, or would prevent someone from changing plays at the last minute. But who says you have to use a tablet, if you both have smartphones? This means that each person can use their own device, a device that they are already familiar with. Of course, I think Glass is going to be commonly compared to the new tablet controller for the Wii U, just like Kinect and Sony Move were compared so much (remember move? Nope, neither does anyone else). I think it should be a concern to Nintendo that Microsoft is releasing a product very similar to theirs – for free. Microsoft has the benefit of launching the program on a console with a very large install base and fine tuning its performance over the remainder of the Xbox 360’s lifetime. Then when they finally announce that the next Xbox Glass can be built right into its operating system, with no need to change anything, allowing users to upgrade their phone or tablet whenever they want, to keep up with increasing technology. How long will it be before tablets will be usable to play a video game running off the console the same way the Wii U controller is able to? I don’t think it will take that long – there goes Nintendo’s entire claim to fame in the ‘Next Generation’ console war! I can’t wait to install Glass on my phone and tablet and see what new features are available completely free, and see what the rest of this gaming generation has to show.
That’s it for this article, be sure to check out Xbox Smartglass for Android and iOS (you could try it on a Windows device – but who buys Windows phones/tablets?), and some of the great free-to-play games available – Keep on Gaming.
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