Shiny founder David Perry has stated that free PC games are going to be piracy’s silver bullet, with in-game purchases supporting content and keeping everybody happy.
“The next big thing will be free games,” stated the man responsible for such games as Earthworm Jim, MDK and Messiah. “[Asia] had so much piracy that they decided to stop charging for the games. Instead, there’ll be a charge for things you might want to use in the game. Your character might have a plain white T-shirt. If you wanted a nicer one you could have it for a dollar. Or perhaps you could buy a magic sword for a knight for a dollar.”
Perry’s dream may not be far off, with Battlefield Heroes and Quake Live exploring the business model of free games supported by extra content or advertisements. It seems to have worked in Asia, so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t do wonders over here.
At the very least, it’ll stop giving developers something to blame when their games do badly.
