Do you like paying $60 for the latest videogames? Easy Studios boss Ben Cousens hates that you do it. Criticizing the current price of games as “exploitative”, Cousens believes the free-to-play model is superior.
“I can’t think of anything more exploitative than gating all of your content behind having to pay someone $60,” said the man whose studio is ironically in thrall to EA. “That’s a really harsh business model if you think about it objectively. What we do is enable everyone to play the game, and figure out if they like it.
“If they don’t like it they can walk away and they don’t lose anything.”
We make fun of Farmville players, but as I’ve pointed out before, they’re being more money-savvy than you are with their free-to-play models. I’m actually a big fan of free-to-play games in concept — unfortunately. nobody will take it seriously when most games in that bracket are total crap.
Before major publishers with quality games back up the business model, it will likely never move beyond the types of games we love making fun of, despite the fact they’re making mad bank.
EA’s Cousins: $60 Games “Exploitative” [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
