by Stacy Jones on Jun 28, 2012
Sony Online Entertainment has rapidly become one of the biggest high quality free-to-play publishers on the market, and SOE boss John Smedley made it clear in a recent chat with Gamasutra that the publisher is aiming to become a "completely free-to-play company" and that the decision has been one of the best moves SOE has ever made.
"Now it's just us putting our games out there and saying 'bring it on.' If they like it, great! If they don't, they don't spend a dime. ... We think we can get a part of their life. That our games are good enough they'll spend their time with us and once they do they'll spend some money with us."
While free-to-play doesnt offer any compensation for development up front like a box sale would, Smedley notes that the lower access barrier allows players to decide if they want to spend money on the companys titles before investing their hard-earned cash. And by adding new content and features such as SOEmote, Smedley expects that theyll be able to keep players happy and spending in current titles as well as the upcoming MMOFPS PlanetSide 2 and the secretive EverQuest Next project.
Source: Gamasutra