Ubisoft - brands and a level of trust are "important" when creating F2P titles
Ubisoft's worldwide director of online games, Stephanie Perotti, believes there is still a stigma attached to games which are free-to-play, and Ubisoft hopes to change the public's perception with quality offerings.
Speaking with MCV, Perotti said the free-to-play market is still very young, and traditional boxed players -especially in Europe - remain rather leery of such titles.
"Initial free-to-play games had low quality or unfair business models, like you have to pay to win, or you have to pay because you’re the worst and lack experience," she said. "So perhaps there’s this fear that nothing can be free and that at some point the game will try and trick them into something.
"But what we see today is a lot of great games that are free-to-play, and I hope that at some point players will just see them as games. That the business model won’t matter to them, just the experience. People that play League of Legends today don’t do so because it’s free to play, they do because it’s a great game."
When it comes to F2P offerings, Perotti said brands are "important," as they are built by the community and provide players will a level of trust.
"Brands gives players something to trust when going into free-to-play or online because it’s something they’ve never done," she said. "So we continue to evolve our brands, to give those communities what they want.
"It’s also a good way for games to stand out. It’s really dependant on when it makes sense to use brands, when you have the chance to reach out to new players. Free-to-play offers a chance to reach new players, and we want our players to be able to enjoy all brands no matter what platform they’re on.
"I think gamers want good games, so if you have a good game – even if it’s free-to-play – they will be interested in it. I think combining the experience we have on the development side, our great teams and our great brands, we hope that this perception will go away because people will have fun with our games."
Assassin’s Creed: Utopia and The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot are two of the latest F2P titles announced by Ubisoft.