Free-to-play is still a nascent business model in the U.S. and some people still haven't fully accepted it. Thomas Seris, Senior Brand Manager at Ubisoft, doesn't think the fact that Ghost Recon Online is F2P is relevant to the quality it offers, however.
“As a player, it’s difficult for me to accept that business models are relevant criteria to judge the quality of a video game. Some MMOs switched from a subscription to a free-to-play model, so it’s purely a perception issue. Because of this, Free is sometimes synonymous with low quality products, games that publishers cannot charge for,” said Seris. “The real question is to understand how the free-to-play model is impacting gameplay. The development philosophy behind Ghost Recon Online is to ensure payers are not given a specific advantage over players. This is great, because the game is all about competition, and it requires fairness. As a consequence, Ubisoft Singapore is focusing on providing players with a great AAA Ghost Recon game, regardless of the way it generates revenue.”
“We simply won’t hide from our free-to-play nature and this message will be prominent in our campaign. We’re also looking forward to leveraging a franchise history made of various memorable extremely well-reviewed games,” added Seris. “Ultimately, the promotional support behind the game, the quality of PR and advertising assets, or just simply the type of campaign behind Ghost Recon Online will definitely be on par with a AAA boxed product campaign.”
Read more in the full interview on [a]list.
