Former Shiny Entertainment founder and director David Perry stated that “The next big thing will be free games”. Perry made the statement in Belfast after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen’s University.
David Perry speaks from experience and founded Shiny Entertainment in 1993, which is best known for it’s titles such as Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, and The Matrix: Path of Neo. While still vividly active in the gaming world, Perry stepped down from his position at Shiny in 2006.
“[Asia] had so much piracy that they decided to stop charging for the games. Instead, there’ll be a charge for things you might want to use in the game,” Perry said. “Your character might have a plain white T-shirt. If you wanted a nicer one you could have it for a dollar. Or perhaps you could buy a magic sword for a knight for a dollar.”
Perry added, “It’s going to turn our industry on its head. I want to see the same thing happening in the USA and Europe.”
An excellent example of microtransaction success is Korea’s Nexon corp. Both Crazyriding Kartrider and Maple Story are free to play games with a number of in game items available for purchase with real world money.
While microtransaction payments have already been a massive success in Asia, the technology is slowly creeping westwards. EA’s Battlefield Heroes is set to launch on a microtransaction platform, i.e. the game is free to download, but upgrades and additional play are managed through a microtransaction system. EA’s approach is the first attempt by any Western publisher to introduce a pure microtransaction platform. To level the playing field, the graphics are a bit scalled back in order to ensure playability on a wide variety of systems. The game will feature microtransactions to upgrade character aesthetics. Advertising will flesh out the web front end of the game, while none will be present within the game itself.
Perry would not give any details about his current project with Acclaim, only stating that it is a ‘Top Secret’ ambitious, community-created MMO.
Tags: earthworm jim, free games, gaming world, massive success, matrix path of neo, mdk, microtransaction, piracy, shiny entertainment
