Home Gaming Free to play games will be a ‘significant’ part of Sony’s future

Free to play games will be a ‘significant’ part of Sony’s future

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15

MONIES

Not all free-to-play games are equal. Some of them are more concerned with ringing every possible bit of cash out of a player before offering them anything that is actually worthwhile, whereas other games are actually pretty damn fun to play and worth a few extra bucks being tossed towards the experience. Take WarFrame for instance. It’s a solid game, that can easily be enjoyed with or without cash. That business model has proven to be rather profitable for the title, and Sony is paying attention.

“We’re really looking at this as a significant part of our digital business,” PlayStation senior account executive  Sarah Thompson said to Gamespot, describing the growth of free to play games as an area that would provide significant amounts of cash in the years to come.  “I think that it’s going to be a really a big chunk of our revenues in the next few years; 3-5 years. And it’s already growing at amazing rates that are really quite surprising.”

According to Thompson, Sony didn’t expect the F2P model to take off on the PlayStation console, but they were pleasantly surprised:

So we think that’s great news. I think that it is really stabilizing the business. And I think it’s future-proofing us. I think that it’s really taking us into where we need to be as a company. As a company, we do fully believe in free-to-play.

There aren’t too many free to play games on the PS4 right now. Warframe, War Thunder and PlanetSide 2 are the bigger guns in that arsenal, clearly taking advantage of a gap in the digital marketplace. When said marketplace becomes flooded with contenders however, I’d like to see if Sony will still be pulling in some serious revenue on the PSN. Either that, or F2P fatigue will be setting in.

Last Updated: March 4, 2015

15 Comments

  1. RinceThis

    March 4, 2015 at 15:35

    Header win! HAHAHA!

    Reply

    • Dutch Matrix

      March 4, 2015 at 15:38

      Vince just has this sleazy vibe about him. Makes Hugh Hefner seem like the perfect gentleman.

      Reply

      • RinceThis

        March 4, 2015 at 15:39

        Agreed. He makes me laugh though!

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          March 4, 2015 at 15:42

          So does Hef. Marrying 3 girls and making us believe he can uhhhhh keep them happy…

          Reply

  2. Admiral Chief

    March 4, 2015 at 15:42

    Wonder why they sold off SOE then…

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      March 4, 2015 at 15:52

      I’m still worried about what it means for PS2

      Reply

  3. Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

    March 4, 2015 at 15:54

    F2P reads as P2W whenever Sony is involved unfortunately.

    Reply

    • Spathi

      March 4, 2015 at 15:57

      Have you played Planetside 2? I don’t get where you are coming from?

      Reply

      • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

        March 4, 2015 at 16:01

        PS is the exception not the rule. Have you played H1Z1?

        Maybe DC online? or even Everquest got the good old P2W treatment later.

        Reply

        • Spathi

          March 4, 2015 at 16:05

          H1Z1, although not a Sony game anymore, was “P2W” for 3 days which resulted in everyone on the internet and their mother jumping on the bandwagon, even though they haven’t played the game. The drops were adjusted and work as intended. Have you played H1Z1? 😛

          Haven’t played DC Online or Everquest though, so can’t comment on those two.

          Reply

          • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

            March 4, 2015 at 16:15

            Yes H1Z1 still has a P2W element in it although it has been significantly reduced. Still … in a survival game even getting water/food = p2w.

            And yes I have played it … for 2 hours before I gave up and switched back to DayZ mod.

  4. Marcus

    March 4, 2015 at 16:06

    I’ve been playing Warframe and I really like it. Fast paced and loads of options to play with. Really great game.

    Reply

  5. konfab aka derp

    March 4, 2015 at 16:14

    Ouch, that kinda destroys the argument that PC fanbois make about how expensive console games are.

    Reply

    • Lordmatt48

      March 5, 2015 at 03:11

      Minus the fact that PC already had ALL these listed F2P games and more. As well as a hell of a lot of cheap games to boot.

      Reply

      • konfab aka derp

        March 5, 2015 at 07:59

        But with the lower initial price of consoles, it does change things quite a bit.

        Reply

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