Why the future of video games may be free-to-play

What's Tech?

Content provided by Vox Media Podcast Network and The Verge. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Vox Media Podcast Network and The Verge or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

8y ago 19:52

MP3•Episode home

Archived series ("Inactive feed" status)

When? This feed was archived on August 01, 2022 13:56 (2y ago). Last successful fetch was on April 04, 2020 18:09 (4y ago)

Why? Inactive feed status. Our servers were unable to retrieve a valid podcast feed for a sustained period.

What now? You might be able to find a more up-to-date version using the search function. This series will no longer be checked for updates. If you believe this to be in error, please check if the publisher's feed link below is valid and contact support to request the feed be restored or if you have any other concerns about this.

If you own a smartphone or have a Facebook account, odds are you've played a free-to-play game. Maybe you grew crops in Farmville or scrimmaged in Clash of Clans. If you're anything like me, one of those city-building games (the kind that publishers shrewdly pair with a popular intellectual property like The Simpsons or Star Wars), has sunk its claws into your free time and shredded it into gory pulp. Odds are you haven't, however, paid for your free-to-play games. The format, which makes money from secondary purchases inside of the game after its been downloaded for free, only sees purchases from 2.2 percent of its players, according to 2014 report by Swrve. This year's Swrve report has an even more seemingly grim stat: nearly half of free-to-play revenue comes from 0.19 percent of players. So with those numbers in mind, why is free-to-play gaming still popular amongst some of the industry's best and smartest video game publishers? And why might it be the dominant revenue model for big publishers in the future? I invited my friend and colleague Andrew Webster to explain on this week's episode of What's Tech. Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech? stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

88 episodes

#Future Trends #Society #Tech News #Video Games #Vox Media Podcast Network #News #Tech #Arts #Verge