Namco Bandai: “Free-to-play games can't be high-quality”

DarkSoulsDEATHRAT

The F2P empire is expanding so quickly that it may soon build its own Deathstar, but not everyone's on board. Namco Bandai, however, may just take the anti-F2P rebellion sentiment to a whole new level. The gist of the Dark Souls publisher's argument? F2P isn't a dead end; it's worse. It's a quality-devouring black hole that the industry's willingly walking right into.

"Free-to-play games can't be high quality," said European senior VP Olivier Comte during Cloud Gaming Europe (via IndustryGamers ). "We need to put certain value on certain work. When you're a big company… you can't take risks too quickly, you can't make a change just because there's a fashion for a couple of years; you want to be there in 20 or 30 years."

He further argued that the unrelenting barrage of cheap, easier games is slowly sapping value away from triple-A games by causing buyers to expect to have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

So basically, Comte believes this rapidly expanding bubble is destined to burst in spectacular fashion. Even so, his argument seems a tad self-serving, if you ask me. He sort of just ignores the part where full-price products on PC tend to sink amidst a sea of piracy. F2P's a potential solution, and I think it'd be rather like walking the plank into a tank of genetic mutant sharks just to write it off because change is scary. How about you?

Latest in Gaming Industry
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year
A still from a video announcement of Game Informer's return, featuring the magazine's Halo 2 issue.
Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned'
Typing on internet search toolbar: What am I doing?
How a Microsoft exec managed to pitch Microsoft Word through the genius tactic of being able to actually use it in a 'type-off' demanded by clients: 'I was the only one who'd actually been a secretary'
Half-Life wallpaper - Gordon Freeman
Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again