Let’s be perfectly honest here: everyone loves a freebie. Even if a stranger hands you a giftwrapped box with a whole lot of nothing you’re bound to jump in glee and want to hug the dude until he chokes. Or something.
Free games are great. What’s not to like in a game that cost you nothing and makes you spend quite a few entertaining hours in front of your computer? Sure, that’s nice, but games are expensive to make and giving them for nothing is completely absurd. Or is it?
Actually, publishers can get a lot out of this deal, so it’s somewhat strange that there are so few commercial games gone free. We have the excellent survival horror The Suffering, Psi-Ops and little else. There are preciosities like TrackMania Nations Forever or Enemy Territory, but those we’re built straight (or changed path along the way) to fit into the free model, so let’s not focus on them. Let’s talk about commercial games becoming free, and why it should happen more.
Say you’re a publisher. Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, whichever you like. You have a vast catalog collecting dust. Hundreds of Need For Speed and FIFA, sitting there, not going to stores because it’s not worth it, and that’s it. So, why don’t you just stick some ads on the menu and loading screens and give it to the community? You don’t even have to bother with the download, because there are dozens of sites that host the file for you.
The advantages of this model is clear. First, you grab some five-year old games that no-one would ever buy and make them fresh again. If you do this in the vicinity of a commercial release of a new sequel, players will fall for it without even realizing it’s a great marketing stunt. For them you’re just nice, and they appreciatte it. Hell, they may even go out and buy the new game without thinking too much about it.
Then, you might get a few bucks from the ads splattered all over the in-game menus. Since the game was already out of date, all you get is profit.
So, to sum it up nicely: publishers give you some free games for download without much effort or expenses, stick some ads on it, and it turns out to be a nice publicity stunt for their next project. And we, players, will most likely love them long time.
Free games are great. What’s not to like in a game that cost you nothing and makes you spend quite a few entertaining hours in front of your computer? Sure, that’s nice, but games are expensive to make and giving them for nothing is completely absurd. Or is it?
Actually, publishers can get a lot out of this deal, so it’s somewhat strange that there are so few commercial games gone free. We have the excellent survival horror The Suffering, Psi-Ops and little else. There are preciosities like TrackMania Nations Forever or Enemy Territory, but those we’re built straight (or changed path along the way) to fit into the free model, so let’s not focus on them. Let’s talk about commercial games becoming free, and why it should happen more.
Say you’re a publisher. Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, whichever you like. You have a vast catalog collecting dust. Hundreds of Need For Speed and FIFA, sitting there, not going to stores because it’s not worth it, and that’s it. So, why don’t you just stick some ads on the menu and loading screens and give it to the community? You don’t even have to bother with the download, because there are dozens of sites that host the file for you.
The advantages of this model is clear. First, you grab some five-year old games that no-one would ever buy and make them fresh again. If you do this in the vicinity of a commercial release of a new sequel, players will fall for it without even realizing it’s a great marketing stunt. For them you’re just nice, and they appreciatte it. Hell, they may even go out and buy the new game without thinking too much about it.
Then, you might get a few bucks from the ads splattered all over the in-game menus. Since the game was already out of date, all you get is profit.
So, to sum it up nicely: publishers give you some free games for download without much effort or expenses, stick some ads on it, and it turns out to be a nice publicity stunt for their next project. And we, players, will most likely love them long time.
