King: All games companies must transition to free-to-play

Call of Duty. New Super Mario Bros. Dark Souls. Halo. Uncharted. ALL games must become free-to-play, according to Candy Crush maker King.

The micro-transaction is so strong and it’s definitely a much better model,” King games guru Tommy Palm told IGN. 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?’ the answer will be yes.

I think for companies it is very important to find a good balance. Free-to-play games are difficult to do, and you really need to be good at making it feel balanced to the gamers. So it’s not too greedy.

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.”