Publisher Namco Bandai has gone on record to say that free-to-play titles are not only impossible to create at a ‘high quality’ level, but also affirmed that the current trend in gaming could spell huge consequences for the industry at large. Speaking at Cloud Gaming Europe, senior VP for Europe Olivier Comte spoke against the growing F2P industry, saying that the influx of cheap games is going to be a major problem for gaming as a whole if allowed to continue unabated.
"Free-to-play games can't be high quality," said Comte rather sternly. The business model for smaller, easier titles, is making an expectation to consumers that is whittling away at triple-A development, argues the Namco Bandai executive.
"We need to put certain value on certain work," he offered. "When you're a big company… you can't take risks too quickly, you can't make a change just because there's a fashion for a couple of years; you want to be there in 20 or 30 years."
Still though, F2P seems to be gaining steam in the gaming industry. With Wargaming leading a major push on quality F2P titles in World of Tanks and the ‘World of…’ franchise, there is solid ground on developing a quality title from the ground up. Major titles from Sony Online Entertainment and others have also shown that titles can be successful when using a ‘freemium’ model.
