Making premium games? ‘You’re dead’, says Oscar Clark

Speaking on stage at today’s ExPlay festival, consultant Oscar Clark has claimed that those making premium games are the development industry’s ‘living dead’.

Presenting a session titled ‘Finding Love in the Zombie (Freemium) Apocalypse’, Clark suggested to an audience made up of a significant student and start-up contingent that they should seriously consider only making games that harness free-to-play and fermium-related business models.

"If you’re making a premium game, you’re the living dead," said Clark. "You’re basically dead, you won’t be here in a few year’s time, and if you want to live you’ll have to adapt. And if you’re making a copycat premium game, your’e also the living dead."

In his session looking at the changing nature of marketing games, Clark also stated his belief the industry has much to thank Zynga for.

"Whatever you think of Zynga, what they did was make it possible for us to have a mass market audience," he said. "We have to adapt to all of the different kinds of people playing, and not just us."