Andrew wrote:Monday Tip-Off: Free-to-Play & Triple-A Basketball GamesIt's no secret that NBA Live, once the brand leader in sim NBA video games, has been struggling for well over a decade. It hit a low point with the failed attempt to rebrand and revamp the series with NBA Elite 11, one that it hasn't been able to recover from to date. With its inability to topple NBA 2K, or even just make some inroads into gaining a bigger share of the market, I've seen people suggest that the console version of NBA Live become a free-to-play title. The argument is that it would be a lower risk, and encourage more gamers to give it a try.
Interestingly, I've also seen suggestions that NBA 2K become a free-to-play game. In this case, the suggestion has nothing to do with quality, but rather finance. As you're undoubtedly well aware, the nature of NBA 2K being an annual release means that in modes such as MyCAREER and MyTEAM, there's a reset on our progress with each new game. That means more grinding, and more money spent. With annual sports titles often being derided as glorified roster updates, it's no surprise that a free-to-play model, or perhaps a new game every few years with subscriptions for updates in between, are ideas that have been floated. I certainly have some thoughts on that.
Definitely agree with the article. 2K doesn't need to go Free-To-Play, while it could attract new players who could spend VC since the game would be free, the other non-VC modes would suffer and those who buy the game for that would have little incentive to do so.
If any of those two decides to go F2P, I could see them going like eFootball (formerly PES) is doing right now: card-collecting mode only with an exhibition mode consisting in a few teams. In theory there would be a franchise mode in a year but it would be almost two years since its launch, so you can see where their focus is.
I wish that if Live comes back (really hope they do), they don't take that approach but I can see it being the easiest one to come back and potentially the most profitable. I guess that unfortunately it's where the industry is right now and until it's regulated it won't change.
Plus, another disadvantage of going Free-To-Play is the constant changes that could happen to gameplay and the inability to play the version you like the most. For example, if you don't like 2K22 you could play the previous game or other retro games. If you don't like the latest F2P version of their game (in case it's going multiyear), then you wouldn't be able to play for instance the Year 1 version of the game. And I don't see them having sliders if they go that way.