Free vs Paid Games, What Should I Make?

I'm deciding on my first game and wondering if it should be free to play or paid. When I google free games vs paid I mostly get stuff about mobile phone games, casual games and apps. Which im not that interested in doing.

If I make the game free, then I will need to create content that players can purchase in game thats worth it. And/or attract advertisers and put there add in somewhere.

 

Free- the lite version , and charge for the full

 

If you make your game free but create content that people can purchase than it's no longer free. In any case, I really don't think anyone can answer that for you. You just have to sit down and decide for yourself what would be the better option.

 

What you're talking about is freemium.

 

I was thinking of having it possible to get all the rewards, with earned points in game. While having the option to buy points also. Like battlefield heros.

I'm asking because im quite new to game development and want as much input as I can.

 

Start with free ones while you learn.

While you're learning it's unlikely that you'll make anything that would make significant money, but there's plenty of benefit to be had just by getting your games out there so you learn the processes and can get feedback from people.

 

It really depends on your strategy. Free games can draw 4 to 6 times as many users than even a $0.99 game. The question is, how effectively can you monetize on those customers once they get there?

Also keep in mind that if you're going to use micro-transactions, you'll have a lot more to consider. For instance, you won't want to deal directly with customers' money/credit cards, so you'll want a third party to handle that.

 

Yeh true, but I want to learn marketing from my games as well.

How come most free games are cutesy app and mobile phone games? Does it not work as well for more high end games? (battlefield, crysis, etc)

 

Have a look at warface a AAA game made in cryengine that is freemium. Planetside 2 another AAA freemium game. Guild wars 2 another AAA fremium game, end of nations and the list goes on and on

 

Guild Wars 2 is not freemium. You need to buy the game to play it. You just don't pay monthly.

 

Take in example Team Fortress 2. It's free, but you can buy things like hats with real money

 

I doubt your first game will be a high end game. If you know what kind of game your making, then you can start considering what kind of monetization method (if any) would be most appropriate.

 

In terms of App Store games, if you don't have an established brand like Angry Birds, Monopoly, it has to be free. With boatloads of new games every day you are going to have 8 - 24 hours of face time to establish word of mouth before the game disappears forever from public view. After that views are purely advertisement driven. But you say, you're not interested in mobile phone games or casual games or apps, so maybe in your category this is different.

 

wow warfighter looks real good, CoD might need to watchout for this developer in the future

 

Options:

-Free
-Paid
-Freemium
-Free w/ ads
-Free w/ ads and paid w/o ads
-Free lite and paid full

What you choose is your choice and what you would like to experiment with, of course there will be methods which have been tested to show they are better but I think it depends on the game.


-If your game is a game you wish to just gain some credibility for and some attention, then maybe just go free
- If your game is good and has nice cover art then make it paid
- If your game is good then make it freemium, people will buy the stuff in game if your game is good enough for them to want to.
-Don't make ads if they are going to obscure buttons and such.
-Same as the above, but at the same time, this may be a way of forcing people to get the paid version out of rage.
6) Do this if your game is level based and continues to be interesting, a good example of this would be 'Cut The Rope' which in my opinion is the greatest iOS game created, its perfect.

My thoughts
-Charlie

 

Personally I hate the freemium business model. I like to download a free 'demo' version and pay for the complete game if I like it.

 

You've basically just described the freemium business model. Except, typically, the demo has more of the full features of the game.

I believe you're thinking of the micro-transaction business model.

 

If you're making mobile games, free with in game purchase. You have to have an amazing game to make it as a buy before you try game.

As for windows/osx... not sure. Havn't released a pc game yet.