(Free-to-Play) Resistance Is Futile, Says Robot CEO

By Jason Winter, News Editor January 19, 2015

Hearing the CEO of a company working on a free-to-play game say nice things about the free-to-play model shouldn't come as that great of a surprise, even when he seems to be right.

Robot Entertainment CEO Patrick Hudson spoke to GamesIndustry.biz this week, saying that "resistance" to F2P is diminishing, though he admitted that it will probably never go away, due in part to there still being "a lot of crappy games with crappy free-to-play pricing models."

Hudson obviously doesn't think his company's game, Orcs Must Die! Unchained, is "crappy," but he doesn't classify Robot Entertainment as a free-to-play developer. Rather, OMDU is a game developed by them that happens to be free-to-play.

As to his greater point, though, I have to agree. Like it or not, free-to-play is more respected and accepted, both by the people who make and who play games, than it ever has been, and there's little reason to think that will change any time soon. The naysayers think free-to-play will die -- or rather, they hope it will, despite the concept having no basis in reality and despite the wild success of League of Legends, Dota 2, World of Tanks, and others.

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In this article: Orcs Must Die Unchained, Robot Entertainment.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

Antarky99 6 years ago

As a fairly new gamer to PC (been playing PC for a year or so since I got rid of my XBOX 360) and a newbie when it comes to F2P gaming I have to say I've had a pretty decent amount of success with enough research on the game first before sitting there and downloading it just to be disappointed with it. I honestly love the F2P scene. Is it perfect? No. is it just as fun and just as entertaining as B2P or sub based games? Yes. But it does have its downsides B2P gaming has the solo gamer market on lock, I haven't seen very many solo campaign free to play games with a great story, beginning to end. I think once they add that "resistance" really is futile.

fromhelll 6 years ago

It's hard to defend F2P games when the are so many awful games out there, but I think F2P is headed in the right direction, more and more games are adopting honest monetizing methods and the community understands that F2P stills needs to make money, there's still a room to improve, but that can be said about B2P, and subscription based games too. Hopefully things continue to improve for gaming in general. I think F2P takes a lot of the heat when it comes to criticizing gaming, it always seems like the easiest side to attack from and it is in a way, but a lot of it is because when people think about F2P they think about all those shitty mobile and facebook apps that barely qualify as games.

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Bic Boi 6 years ago

I am one of those who hopes F2P will die and will likely not change my view for a long, long time. Why? Well, get back to me when I DON'T have to dig through all the bad "F2P" games to find a half decent one. Digging through trash to occasionally find something decent is highly off-putting, plain and simple. I'm with Razer on this one..it has a long, long way to go.

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Razer 6 years ago

Things are getting better, but we have a long way to go yet. Whenever someone condemns F2P gaming as a scam, I don't blame them. Good F2P games are still few and far in between. Nobody should have to suffer this many crap games to find them.

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Dianne 6 years ago

Based on my enjoyment of the Orcs Must Die 2, I will certainly give OMDU a run. In this regard, I will be playing a f2p title based on the strength of a paid title, but I have also played paid titles based on the strength of a f2p game. I pretty much look at the cash shop as soon as I conclude a tutorial for a f2p title and like what I've seen. It can be hit and miss, but some companies have created solid f2p models for players.