Online competitive brawler Happy Wars to be service's first title with freemium model, will require Gold membership.
Free-to-play games are coming for paid subscribers of Xbox Live, Microsoft announced this week. Multiplayer cartoon brawler Happy Wars will lead the business model's charge onto Xbox Live Gold in September, Microsoft told Official Xbox Magazine.
Ascend: New Gods, a role-playing game with ad hoc multiplayer elements, will be another of Xbox Live's first free-to-play offerings and is set to launch in "several months." Microsoft said the free-to-play games will be available only to Gold subscribers because many implement multiplayer, a Gold-only feature. Titles with in-game purchases will use Microsoft points.
Xbox Live's new offerings will increase the online service's parity with PlayStation Network, which already hosts free-to-play games including DC Universe Online and the upcoming Dust 514.
Connor Sheridan is the News Intern at GameSpot in San Francisco. He loves Super Metroid and has seen "Weird Al" Yankovic in concert three times.
This game looks so fun.
I'm thinking about to create a sub-forum to talk about strategy and were people can find groups, guilds or just share they're thoughts.
If you like this idea and want to be a part of it :O just visit here. this http://www.torchlightme.com/index.php?threads/happy-wars-petition.763/
1 Like because we appreciate our loyal fans we are releasing free to play games to our gold membership players but unfortunately because of current circumstances we are only able to release the single player game for free and you will have to pay for the good part.
that's how i see it going. nothing good will come out of this
Wow F2P is never gonna be free with M$... Love my Xbox 360 but boy am I ever happy I bought a PS3 to play online just 4 weeks ago!
Enough with the hair splitting, already. Yeah, you pay for your Gold membership "so it's not really free to play." Jeeez, "free-to-play" is now an industry term and we all know what it means. Should they use a different term and make it more confusing? If they called it something else, everyone would be on here saying "Oh, it's really free-to-play, or pay-to-win, but they won't say so because they're Microsoft trying to get more money out of us." Seriously, if the games are any good, what's to complain about?
@anvilone The complaint is that Xbox is the ONLY platform that charges an entry fee in order to play Free-to-play games. And to make matters worse, that fee is reoccurring.
Microsoft's XBL pay-wall invalidates the concept of Free-to-play, which means "no cost to consumer unless they are purchasing the premium content in-game."
@Hvac0120 Instead of free-to-play it should be called Free-except-for-Gold-subscription-internet-bill-electric-bill-taxes-and-rent-to-play? I guess it's a matter of opinion. I already have a Gold Account, so providing a full game at no added cost is close enough for me to think that saying "free-to-play" isn't a gross misrepresentation of what's being offered. I don't generally think that I've paid for demos or trial versions of games just because I have a yearly subscription fee. Everyone is welcome to see it as they wish, but the argument about whether it should be called "free-to-play" is more semantic than anything else.
While I do appreciate people pointing out that this is similar to Sony offering "free" games on Playstation Plus, they ultimately are not the same. The games that you get access to with no additional charge on PS+ (I'll refrain from using the word free) are full fledged games, the games so far offered through Gold are free-to-play meaning they only offer you part of the overall game and you have to spend money to get the rest. If Outland is offered for no additional charge on PS+ you get the whole game without needing to pay any extra money for items, levels or any other such things (this is of course barring any DLC that may be associated with a game).
So, yeah, this is similar to what Sony does with PS+ but not exactly
"Free-to-play games are coming for paid subscribers of Xbox Live ... Xbox Live's new offerings will increase the online service's parity with PlayStation Network ..."
No and No. How can it be "Free-to-play" and require a paid subscription? Doesn't make sense. And it's not on par with Playstation Network because you don't need a PS+ subscription to play Free-to-play games on PSN.
And what you got from PSN is poor service and prehistorical security. To M$ you pay for Quality Service. And as you have just paid for Gold Live to play on Quality multiplayer servers even before you know about release of this titles, they are to be considered free-to-play. If not, you need to consider your Internet bill for all of free-to-play games (most of which are PC).
1 Like I was going to comment on the XBL subscription, but every other comment on here has already said it.
F2P my arse!!
2 Like Stop with this 60 bucks XBL-Gold bull! Must be coming from non-X360 gamers!
Take 1-2 mins of your time and check amazon for 12 months gold codes.
Should be around 45-50$.
Still to expenisive?
Well,once in a month NO McDONALDS and problem solved!
@sladakrobot 2 problems with your argument.
(1) The retail cost of XBL Gold is, in fact, $60. You can get it for much cheaper by shopping around, but the simple fact is that Microsoft considers it a $60 value.
(2) You cannot pay for XBL Gold one month at a time and have it cost $5 (good luck continuously finding 1 month cards on sale). XBL Gold 1 month is around $8, which increases the yearly cost to $96. Yes you can save the $5 a month, but you have to have it all in one lump payment and that can make a difference for people on a tight budget. Simply skipping McD's isn't going to ensure that $5 for the month stays in the cookie jar.
@Hvac0120 To 1) MS values it 60$,yes.MS also values games on demand for 29,99 or 39,99$ where you can get them cheaper elsewhere...and ppl do look elsewhere.
The gold membership will be as expensive as you allow it.
To 2) Yes,my mistake...i have should have add "no mcdonalds" once in a month,12 months long...that would be on par with a 12 month gold membership.
Ok so you need to pay for gold to play a free game that also charges money for in game items and stuff. This is actually worse than making you pay for a gold account to watch Netflix that you pay 9 bucks a month for. What could possibly be next? Maybe they could add a place to swipe your credit card on the new X BOX, so they can charge you a dollar every time you turn it on, then you would have to have a gold account to make your controller work, and finally you would have to buy slots on your system to add games and services, and every time you wanted to proceed to the next stage in the game it would cost you 5 dollars. This would logically be the next step for them.
I gues if you want to be fair, and this is coming from a PS3er playing devil's advocate here, it's because it's online and the Gold subscription is for online, no exceptions. Still dumb though.
5 Like Um...you need a monthly "Gold" prescription to play a free game? What? That's not really "free" is it. It's bad enough you have to pay to play online already.
Playstation Plus members are paying to play FREE games as well. lol!! They are only free and available if you pay their subscription. P+ is like $10 a month, isn't it?
@blackace @craigprime I don't pay for PS+ and I can play F2P games like DC universe for free. PS+ is $50/year. 3 months is $18.
@craigprime Yearly subcrition only suckers do it monthly when it is cheaper to do it yearly
1 Like Can someone explain to me exactly what I just read?
F2P games that Need subscriptions(AND in-game purchases).
*facepalm*
But whatever floats the boat I suppose. It could be viewed in a positive light by some but...me? Meh >.>
@EnforcerICEyou get 'free games' when you subscribe to Playstation Network PLUS, as well.
I know, it's just those are marketed as games that are not free to play but are being made available for free to subscribers. Games like DC Universe and Dust 514 are / will be free to everyone, not just subscribers. Where as these XBL free to play games require a subscription regardless of it's original price. I think that's the biggest thing that makes this "deal" sound so bad.
Exactly, that Happy Wars game mentioned in the article would be 100% free on PC or PSN, where as on XBL you need a Gold subscription. A "free game" offered to PS+ members is a different type of game that would not be free on PC or XBL even with a subscription.
@blackace Are you retarded? How is it not different PSN offers games for free that without the subscription cost money and online is always free if you want to nit pick. 360 requires a subscription if you want to play online or do anything. So please explain how its the same again. Boy MS sure knows how to brainwash people. lol
@EnforcerICE @farcorners Yes, but Sony also offers FREE GAMES to PS Plus subscribers. It's no different then what Microsoft is doing with XBL. DC Universe is free to PC gamers as well.
3 Like They're not free-to-play if they require a Gold subscription, but you could also view it as MS actually including some sort of worthwhile benefit to paying $60 a year.
It would be sad though if the same games started showing up on standard PSN, no PS+ membership needed.
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I really hope this fails. Free to play games are a scourge that needs to be eliminated. They will be the downfall of the game industry if we the gamers don't do something about it.
Wow, so Sony should stop give their Playstation Plus members FREE to play games every month as well? I don't think they would like that.
2 Like @zequex A terrible idea. They might as well not call them freemium at all. If we have to pay ANYTHING to partake in any part of the game, it's not a free-to-play game.
2 Like Playstation Plus is still a better deal with FREE full PS3 games. Now dont start the fan boy with me because I have 4 yrs running on XBL. I like both consoles but i am making an observation to those who will B@c3h. I hope this idea by microsoft is a good deal and I want to see where this goes. ^^
I'm sure Microsoft will off Full Game in the near future as well. Everyone has to pay something. If you are online, you are paying. When it PS Plus, XBL or your ISP. You have to PAY unless you're parents are paying for you. lol!!
1 Like Totally agree. I have both consoles as well but prefer Xbox however it has nothing to compete with the now amazing Playstation Plus.
1 Like @P90E21 I still think XboxLive is a better deal, but we all are entitled to our opinions. This free to play model is not for everybody. There aren't many free to play games I like. I think APB is decent though.
@godzillavskong @P90E21 You should take a peek at PS+. In terms of what is a better deal, it really stands out for $50 a year.
If the game is actually good, it will be a cool "free" game for those Xbox Live Gold Subscribers at least ($60 a year, unless you find a deal every year, but it's still X fee per year)...but if it's garbage then it won't matter free to play or not. I hope it's good.
The article mentions PSN's Dust 514 and DC Universe F2P games, but with those you don't have to pay for PS+. They really are F2P. That's definitely worth considering for those few F2P- console fans out there.
Well, I guess that is cool, I hope some of the games are worth playing after a few months.
Are you sure Microsoft? Are you SURE? Or are you going to keep charging forty-thousand dollars to patch your game?
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