Yup. You can wail “SAY IT AIN’T SO”, but Nintendo can easily wail back – if they ever decided to begin wailing directly to consumers – “THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’”.
Speaking with IGN at E3 last week, Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that the company’s first foray into the business model, popular with casual gamers but often despised by more serious fans, will be Steel Diver.
And not a re-release of the 3DS launch title, either, but a fresh game that changes the game’s design and adds stuff like a four-player battle mode.
The exact model Nintendo will be using to charge players for chunks of the game hasn’t yet been decided, as they are focusing “on balancing how a pricing model would affect the entertainment value of the final product”.
Slippery slope, this! It starts innocently enough, charging for submarine skins, but one day you’ll pay $US2 for a Zelda game then have to pay for the gear to unlock the deeper areas of dungeons and oh god this is a dark and terrible future.
Comments
10 responses to “Nintendo Is Releasing A Free-To-Play Game”
You mean like they just did with the Streetpass update? 4 brand new games to play, hundreds of new hats and clothes to get for your Mii… If you want to pony up $6.50 per game (or $19.50 for all 4 at once, but buy one and the discount disappears forever)
Hm. I loved Steel Diver. But I don’t love games that I can’t put on my shelf.
WHAT DO
If Nintendo can’t save this new generation then… Xbox One! YAY!!! *JUMPS OFF CLIFF WITH NES TOPLOADER ATTACHED*
Huh? I love nintendo and always have since i was 4 but the WiiU is from last generation. Im very sorry to inform you. Im probably actually much more upset about the entire situation than most people. I will enjoy smash, zelda and some various mario goodness but like the 2 generations before it im ready for a large dosing of disappointment. Nintendo you can still make amazing games and have a system thats actually powerful. Having both is an option. Oh well next gen maybe
You mean you’ll end up paying full price anyway? :O ALERT THE MEDIA!!!
The whole point of microtransactions is that they can get you to pay more than a single larger price for a full game.
Also, this was announced during E3, once again Luke is on the cutting edge of game journalism.
The 3DS prints money?
It only prints Nintendollars.
Considering how well it’s selling, I’m assuming it basically does.
I wonder if it’s a game about clutching at straws.
What’s so bad about free to play? it allows you to trial a game before deciding to pay and it surly won’t affect the big Ninty franchises anyway