EA: Free-to-Start Could Be the Console Market's Answer to Free-to-Play - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 29 January 2015 / 4,883 Views
Free-to-Start could be the console market's answer to free-to-play, according to Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson who spake with investors and attended by Seeking Alpha. This is essentially a free trial for gamers to play games in order to decide if they want to buy the game or not.
"As we look to the future, we believe a very big part of that player base will expect a free-to-start experience," said Wilson. "When we look at film, television, music, books very often there is this free trial notion that actually on boards new players, new listeners, new readers or new viewers into a service."
"We're actively looking at how we could offer that type of experience to our players, console and across other platforms. From there, it really comes down to, do they make their next step in terms of a premium download, a micro-transaction in a free-to-play type environment or a broader relationship through a subscription."
"Our expectation is that we will be offering all three of those options to players, both console and across other platforms."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Free-to-start = Demo
Pretty sure they used to call this a demo, and Extra Credits already covered pretty extensively why demos often don't benefit the people trying to sell the game.
And given this is EA we're talking about, I'm sure they'll find a way to turn this into just another way to trick you. "Just make sure the first hour of your game is fantastic and the rest is peanuts."
Yeah, sounds like a demo. I know the plan was to offer a 1 hour trial of every game via streaming from PSNow, but I've not heard anything recent about that.
