Do you think Amazon's entrance into F2P games will help?

[Sugarhill]

You may not know this, but Amazon has been offering F2P games on their site as of this week and of course, the opportunity to buy any in game transactions through them. I think this is rather ingenious and would help with a lot of parents and their kids playing these types of games.

But, there is also the issue of Amazon's client maybe not being as stable as say, Steam's. I haven't done anything with the games as of yet, so I don't know if one would be able to get the game from another source and still make purchases through Amazon, but if a person could limit their monthly games to whatever they have on a gift card, a lot of people could save themselves from themselves.

 

[thatgirl]

I hadn't heard about this before now. Thanks for mentioning it!

I get Amazon gift cards fairly often and this would be a good way to use them, especially as gifts for others. The system looks a little confusing at first glance, but I see some games that I would try for free, so why not?

About making purchases, do you mean can you buy a game somewhere else and make in game purchases through Amazon? That's a good question.

 

[omarfw]

F2P is going to eventually take over as the dominant multiplayer scheme regardless of who hops on that particular bandwagon sooner than later. It simply makes more long term revenue than single payment games. Subscriptions work too but they hinder the amount of players a game can acquire and most people can't afford to justify paying $15 a month for a game anymore.

 

[litethrow]

I feel that it will definitely help F2P game developers as these days even the most tech unsavvy people are familiar with, and trust Amazon. I know that if I had to get my parents permission to make online transactions, they would be far more willing to do something through Amazon than through a game company's site, just because Amazon is a household name.

Obviously this is a good move for Amazon as well, because Free to Play with microtransactions is an incredibly lucrative business model that more games are gravitating towards. Just look at League of Legends: one of the most popular PC games today, entirely free to play, yet people throw money at it left and right because they want to unlock things faster or to get decorative skins.

This really is a win all around as it makes it easier for F2P games to survive and thrive, while at the same time making it easier for consumers to make purchases within these games.

 

[micromachne]

Help with what?

Popularity? F2P already had that long before Amazon wanted to enter F2P.

Install bases? Sure it'll help with that. It's Amazon, possibly the biggest online retailer right now.

 

[NuneZ]

If they implement a market where they can pay to win, then yes, I think it will help Amazon a lot.