XBLA's first F2P game is Happy Wars!

[onlysublime]

http://www.joystiq.c...e-to-play-game/

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mt17tFnuFQ&feature=player_embedded

 

this game has been on my radar for awhile but had no idea that it would be a F2P game. It was announced last year at TGS (Tokyo Game Show) but then went quiet for development. Definitely can see the Japanese influence and how much Asia has embraced the F2P model.

Edited August 25, 2012 by onlysublime

[Gabriel]

Definitely can see the Japanese influence

 

Yeah. There are colors other than brown and grey as well as times of day beyond that one smoggy orange moment right before dusk which all western games take place during.

[Protoplasym]

I can see why it's free...

[davepesc]

First thought: Yay, we're getting Maple Story...

Second thought: Multiplayer only? Ugh.

Third thought: Maybe I'll give it a shot. At least it's free.

[GodzillaIsMyCopilot]

First thought: Yay, we're getting Maple Story...

Second thought: Multiplayer only? Ugh.

Third thought: Maybe I'll give it a shot. At least it's free.

You got farther then I did:

 

First thought: Oh, hey, I need to refill my coffee.

Edited August 26, 2012 by GodzillaIsMyCopilot

[Metal Ghost]

Not my cup of tea, but thanks for the info Only....this is one I hadn't heard of and it's interesting to note the official arrival of F2P on Live.

[onlysublime]

well, how about Ascend: New Gods? another F2P game coming to XBLA and it's an action game:

 

http://www.xblafans....view-51174.html

 

 

excerpts from article:

 

 

Although Signal promises that more challenging enemies will turn up later in the game, the demo, while enjoyable, left one wanting to see what other tricks the studio has up its sleeve. Most of the encounters could be won by relying on basic attacks, the repeated swinging of a sword or war hammer until the foe(s) before the Caos were felled. Getting beyond the basic “press X to kill stuff” approach to battles is something that all developers of action games must work to overcome if they are to differentiate their work from that of the competition.

 

Signal has plans for that. A unique form of multiplayer (more on that shortly) and a slew of challenging beasts that may require a bit more cunning to overcome. “We have tons of different monsters in the game,” Signal Studios Lead Game Designer Ian Scott explained to XBLA Fans at E3. “As you saw, the humans are really small in our game; they’re kind of like rats. You can pick them up and eat them for health, but there’s obviously things that are a lot bigger than you and more badass. Well, I don’t know about necessarily more badass than you.” Scott isn’t sure whether or not the team wants individual non-Titan enemies to be tougher than a Caos, but he asserted that there are definitely enemies that can dole out a walloping.

 

“We’re trying to stay away from doing things too much like Shadow of the Colossus. We do have some quick-timey-event-like elements to the combat,” Scott said when asked if these battles would feature QTEs like in the God of War franchise or unfold similarly to Team Ico’s take on enormous boss fights.

 

There is no shortage of gamers who feel QTEs have been done to death in recent years, and that camp should know that the creators of Ascend don’t plan on leaning too heavily on such sequences. “So far as the Titan combat goes,” continued Scott, “we’re probably going to remain pretty tight-lipped, but as a design philosophy, we don’t want you to basically go through a button sequence to beat the guy. If we can highlight a couple of moments in the fight that way, that might be acceptable, but you know you’re going to spend all this time collecting weapons and armor and abilties, and that’s going to color your play style. So to have you do a boss fight where…you can’t really fight that way kind of seems like not the way to go.”

 

More than just character one-upmanship, the game’s multiplayer will allow would-be Titan-slayers to interact with one another’s worlds without directly entering them. “We’re trying to do something new asynchronously but also it’s like synchronous multiplayer,” said Scott. “You know we love playing co-op RPGs, but like it could be a hassle at times to get everybody together at the same time for the same game. So what we want to do with [the game] is give you like, a seamless experience with like — we do want to give you the ability of playing with your friends, together, like we don’t want to have dungeons that are so hard that you have to work together…But, you know the multiplayer component adds so much that we don’t want to omit that from the experience.”

 

[cparsley]

You all do know that those 2 are NOT the first "Free to play" XBL games... Their is Aegis Wing and Doritos Crash Course (which a sequel is coming out) before these two.

[onlysublime]

aegis wing was a free game. it's not under the new category of free-to-play.

 

doritos crash course (and all the other doritos games) were sponsored and paid for by Doritos so that we could get them for free.

[cparsley]

They are still Free to Play, so your critique doesn't hold water.

[onlysublime]

you can google it. a lot of people can explain free to play better than I can.

 

at the core of free to play is an open-ended free to play game that evolves over time. usually they're RPGs, MMOs, or build-type things. you make the experience however you like to make it. the most common examples are things like Farmville. you can play it completely free or you can buy things that make your experience better. You take a game like Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's a F2P MMO. If you want to play it free, you can. If you want to help you cut down on all the grinding or you want to achieve higher character stats, you can pay for things that'll help you.

 

you can play with semantics all you like. it seems like you just want to argue the point. the point is that F2P is a group of games that the Xbox (or consoles in general) has never had. It's a category that spawned on the PC a few years ago and is really popular for many people. In fact, many F2P games generate a lot more money than traditional titles. I'm not going to argue what F2P is. If you want to waste your time ignoring reality, that's your choice.

[davepesc]

They are still Free to Play, so your critique doesn't hold water.

 

Then every (non-mmo) game is "Free to Play" because you can play as much as you want after you buy it.

 

"Free to Play" is a semi-new genre of (usually multiplayer) games that are completely free to download and play, with upkeep costs covered by microtransactions.

 

Some of these games gimp "free" players to such an extent that money becomes necessary if one wants to succeed. These have come to be known as "Pay to Win."

[onlysublime]

Yes, it's always a challenge for the developer to get the right balance. It's their job and if they make it so that people who pay are at a distinct advantage, the developer is killing their own product. But years after doing this kind of stuff, many developers have gotten it right.

 

But let's take a fantasy scenario with Happy Wars. What if you could buy a lightsaber for your character for $2? While it only doles out the same hit damage as a free mace, I'm sure a lot of people would pay $2 for that lightsaber just for the cool look of slicing through people even though it doesn't give a competitive advantage. People do this. They spend to enhance their experience. They reason they're getting a game that would normally cost $40-60 so spending $2 on a lightsaber is cheap in comparison. You take a game like Tribes which is a F2P first-person shooter. It feels like a pretty high quality title that would normally cost $30+. But it's completely free and you can have a completely great time without ever spending a penny.

 

Or how about Gears of War 3? Right now, you have to play a ton of horde in order to level up to the max ability for your silverback. And even once you level up the ability, it still takes a ton of cash just to be able to purchase it. How about buying the max ability for $2? That person wouldn't be at an advantage over a normal person because the restriction of needing a ton of cash to purchase it would still be there. That $2 wouldn't negate the skill needed to kill enough people to accumulate enough cash to afford that fantastical silverback. All that $2 would save you is the weeks or months of grinding to reach the ability to buy the best silverback.

Edited August 30, 2012 by onlysublime

[cparsley]

No I consider Free2Play (as do many in the industry) a game in which you can play (offline/online (if the game has it available) without having to pay for the game in question.)

 

Yes, Aegis Wing and Crash Course do both have this available, hence why I include it there. I wouldn't include any game you have to pay (cash or Microsoft points) for, as that wouldn't be "FREE"....

 

The tag is just now being thrown around to compete with the rise of "social" gaming (on websites and facebook) where it's free to play, if you wanted to move ahead quicker you can pay cash.

[onlysublime]

you can define whatever you like in your world. if blue is red in your world, that's good for you. don't worry about it.

[Protoplasym]

After reading y'alls explanations of what F2P is... I don't think they're free at all. What's the point of playing an incomplete experience against others who have paid to have things in game that you don't have because you haven't paid for them. The whole model sounds retarded... there are tons of solid non free games available, why would anyone want to mess with such a scammy game design... I don't get it.

[+Gemintronic]

I'm pretty sure step one with XBOX Live is to give your credit card number. Once you pass that step nothing is free.

[Protoplasym]

I'm pretty sure step one with XBOX Live is to give your credit card number. Once you pass that step nothing is free.

 

PSN and Wii are the only console online I play... sparsely at that

 

 

I would 'never' pay to play MP, I think it's

[onlysublime]

for those that have the beta dashboard, Happy Wars is now available to play! go to the beta tab and download the game.

[bloodreptile]

aegis wing was a free game. it's not under the new category of free-to-play.

 

doritos crash course (and all the other doritos games) were sponsored and paid for by Doritos so that we could get them for free.

cool and i normally eat doritos whilst playing.. so it is a win win as far as they are concerned...

[cparsley]

heading to try Happy Wars now... be back after throwing controller at wall due to beta bugs (just kidding)

[HatefulGravey]

I would much rather pay for the game and unlock all these 1000s of items as I play. The game looks like a lot of fun, but having to pay for every item you want will be a real pain in the ass and not something I want to get involved in.

 

There was another F2P game I really liked and I can't remember the name. It had Street of Rage style combat with an RPG inventory system... very cool style game with a lot to like, but if you want to enjoy the game you end up paying for all kinds of crap. Free to play? Yep! Free to really enjoy? Who knows!

[onlysublime]

it's a beta demo. so everything should be free. you paid for something in happy wars???

[Reaperman]

"You got items and happy stars!"

That one is really not my thing, but what I find most surprising is that this is the first f2p on xbla. Sony's had more than a few, but since the f2p model is often considered a bit more evil than some other business models, it does make sense that sony would be right on the frontline with that. Actually I had a few hours of fun with psn home's little space ship game for a couple bucks. That price seems fair to me.

[cparsley]

Right now everything is "free" on Happy Wars... been in the game since it opened.... not bad for as Kevin Pierrea would say "What do you want for FREE".