I framtiden kommer allt att vara free-to-play?

Framtiden är proppsmockad med mikrotransaktioner och gratisspel. Det menar Tommy Palm, skapare av Candy Crush Saga och "games guru" (ja, det är hans officiella titel) på svenska King i intervju med IGN. Enligt honom är betalningsmodellen som går ut på att locka med gratis innehåll för att sedan introducera små men kontinuerliga belopp den starkaste på marknaden, och han menar också att den är det bästa för oss spelare, oavsett om vi vet om det eller ej.

"The micro-transaction is so strong and it's definitely a much better model. I think all companies have to transition over to that. If you talk to many hardcore gamers, they're not happy about it right now, but if you asked them about the long term, 'Do you want to continue playing your favourite game for years to come?' And the answer will be yes."

"At King, for instance, we took the decision to make our games truly free-to-play, so you will never end up in the position where you're forced to pay. So you can play all the way to the end without having to pay. For instance, in Candy Crush, of the players who are on the last level, more than half of them didn't pay to get there."

Avslutningsvis nämnde Palm Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Blizzards populära kortspel, som exempel på ett spel som utnyttjar den här betalningsmodellen utan att väcka negativa känslor i spelare.

"Just looking at Blizzard's Hearthstone - it's a great example of a F2P game that is made really well, it's well balanced, and I don't think many people are complaining about that business model. It's easy to see if there's concept that is close to your heart. It works out really well."