Nexon warns consoles could "go the way of the dinosaurs"
Daniel Kim explains why developers need to follow Indiana Jones
Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim has told console developers they need to take an Indiana Jones style leap of faith into the free-to-play market, or risk extinction.
"Console developers are starting to realise that as well, that unless they make accommodations or think about changing their own business model they're going to quickly go the way of the dinosaurs," Kim told GamesIndustry International.
"Free-to-play is kind of like the Indiana Jones, taking that leap of faith - unless you do it there's no other way to continue to grow"
He explained that Nexon's development studios in Korea gave it an insight into future trends, like the way advanced internet connectivity and speeds were changing people's behaviour, away from the traditional console model.
"Console has never been a strong contender in Korea in particular because of piracy, and just in terms of the business model it really makes sense. It's really hard to beat free-to-play as an offering," he said.
"The console guys are starting to realise that, but they also have a challenge in that they have a vested interest in an existing business model of packages. I know it's tough for them to just cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to say 'OK, we're going to go free-to-play and make our bed here' because that's going to piss off a lot of people who they already have an existing business relationship with."
Nexon's MapleStory
"I understand the challenge but unless they're being aggressively proactive about making that leap - it's kind of like the Indiana Jones, taking that leap of faith - unless you do it there's no other way to continue to grow."
Not that it was going to be that easy. Kim added that Nexon had spent years building on orginality and quality, as well as managing the community on both the monetisation and updates side. He likened each game to its own country with its own economy and ecosystem, and inhabitants who are free to leave at any time. That wasn't something you could just pick up overnight, he warned.
"From the business standpoint [free-to-play] is a much better business for us as well because in some ways the responsibility on the developer's side is much greater to not fail, not have a bad experience. You have to earn their business. So you can market a bad Hollywood blockbuster and have a good opening weekend, but you can't have a bad sitcom that runs for years and years."
I spent the last weeks reading and writing about that topic but I'm starting to get sick and tired of it.
Free-to-play is sure to become more and more important, also on the new consoles. But honestly:
I have been waiting for this new console generation long enough. I want a new Playstation or a new X-box and since I
understand that Free-to-play is ... at least lucrative (even though I dislike the development of the games industry of the past years from consumer point of view) I'm fine that this generation will be more open for that concept.
But I'm damn sure that there will be my AAA €60 titles with which I get high quality from start to end. And as long as free-to-play has the image of play-to-win or the-game-sucks-as-long-as-you-dont-pay there will be games which are far more associated with high quality because of their €60 and just play concept
;)
I had an iPhone game that was 'free to play' but i quickly got to the point where it was 'pay or dont play' which mean I just deleted the thing and found somthing else to do with my time.
This type of game puts me off 'free' games and I would rather pay a fee to be able to enjoy the game from start to finish.
15 of us are ready to invest 70 dollars to get a story, a technology, and a 10 hours experience. The others doesn't want to pay so much at once so they could feel less ashamed of playing. we're not a majority and this is the sad reality. This said, saying the consoles will die is a casual game company's speech, and it only say that because the only thing he knows was provided by a paper sheet giving numbers and stats about the overall market.
Microsoft is trialing a new subscription based model for the 360 and sony has bought in to the cloud so there is scope for multple revenu streams to still exist and please multiple consumers.
I happen to like the concept of epesodic gaming. It also would allow for highly polished content being delivered on time online to consumers though its not a model that everyone might find appealing.
You have to remember, companies (and their CEO's) make public statements to promote their products, not to be helpful to others. Nexon is just taking credit for what they have caught flak for over the years.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by James Hastings on 20th August 2012 7:58pm
It SOUNDS like a good portion of the comments come from people that haven't actually played Nexon games, or very many free to play games. I am no self proclaimed expert on the matter, however I have been playing F2P games since about 2008, and doing so on a rather regular basis. I know what I like, and I see what does well (based on how long some of the games last). Not to be biased, but I have found myself enjoying Nexon games to an almost extreme amount. This is largely due to a lack of "pay to win" and "sucks til you pay" methodology. That isn't to say ALL of their games are like that (Combat Arms gives too clear an advantage to paying players IMO) but of the few key titles of theirs I enjoy, the pay wall is non-existent in terms of enjoyability. That said, I do have a hard time with accepting pay-to-win games (so I don't play Combat Arms, opting instead for Alliance of Valiant Arms when I want an FPS) and Nexon is notoriously bad at customer support and screwing with in-game markets at inconvenient times.
As much as I enjoy Rachel's articles as a whole, I can see how the commenters may/have misinterpreted Mr. Kim's quote here. His words I think are more a condemnation of those who claim they are Free-to-play without actually taking the full leap. SWTOR being a perfect example of Indiana Jones making the leap, but before making the jump, he ties himself to the wall with a monthly premium and end game content and instead of actually leaping he squats at the edge and sticks a level 50 cap leg out to test for solid footing. The point here that Mr. Kim was making is that this (Freemiums) isn't actually embracing a true free-to-play experience. With the kind of numbers in player base that SWTOR has experienced, the potential profit could be HUGE. The game already has recognition and public awareness, much more than many of Nexon's games in America have, but it is unlikely it will attract very many players, let alone paying players, with the "Indiana Jones Leap of Extremely Cautious Faith."
As for his message to console games, I believe it is more of a cautious word to future developers about making sure their content is truly value packed, and maybe making them ask themselves if it is really all that necessary to go through the trouble of starting a new project when they could just patch up and add content to the current one. Case and point, some people are probably foaming at the mouth for GTA 5, but when that finally comes around, will there really be a need for a GTA 6? If the game runs beautifully on current gen systems, do we really NEED a next gen to get further content? Digital distribution is already huge and socially normal, and not to mention much more lucrative per copy to the developers and publishers. Consumers know this, so why, with a constant trend towards more digital distribution, would they expect people to be willing to pay the same amount for a digital copy as a hard copy? The more titles they (publishers in general) ask for full price on a digital sale to console, the harder it will be to compete with games that are not only growing in number, but also fun and have regular content updates and replayability.
I don't mind free to play with cosmetics on the side. But I agree Free to Play is a completely misleading title, specially on iphone/android stores since they are displayed under the Free category, which is not true at all.
That said, you CAN do f2p or social gaming on consoles AND have AAA games and arcade-like time-wasters and so forth and so on. Hell, just look at previous console cycles where every type of game from casual to core was supported with (almost) no false blurring of lines at all. You bought certain games because you wanted to and you avoided games and genres you didn't like with no pressure from someone trying to over-manipulate the marketplace with all this splitting of hairs that's all too common these days.
The FTP model comes in many forms. Anyone who hasn't yet should read the Tapjoy Monetization Whitepaper to get themselves up to some semblance of speed. The model can be adapted to any genre and any size of game, including AAA blockbusters.
FTP puts the customer at the centre of the whole gaming experience, by their very nature FTP games have to be better than paid for games. Constant metric based revisions to the game adapt it better to what the customer wants.
The real proof out there is that the customers love it. It has brought many millions of people into gaming who never played before. And the FTP market is expanding at an enormous rate. Meanwhile the console market has been collapsing since 2008 and recently has fallen off a cliff. I am glad I am not relying on it for my pay packet.
Every day articles are published on this website and elsewhere on the interwebs chronicling events, and yet still so many people are in denial. Many very senior people in the game industry have seen the light and their words have been reported only to be ignored by those stuck in the past.
btw This article bears a very strong resemblance to one that Kwalee's David Darling wrote at the beginning of July about Jurassic consoles that was widely reported.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Bruce Everiss on 21st August 2012 7:49am
There are "free to enjoy" games, such as League of Legends, or Team Fortress 2. Games in which every gameplay mechanic is indeed free and in which the progression of the player does not include a paid factor.
Then there are free to play games including an element of frustration that has to be overcome with either large amounts of time or small amounts of money.
Done right, the free to enjoy games still make a ton of money and will dominate the future. Because free to enjoy will always work, while free2play hinges on the stupidity to constantly pay more money to keep playing. Sure, this never stopped people from gambling, but considering that the target audience are are often minors, it is only a matter of time before f2p draws unwanted attention from parents.
I disagree. The FTP games I've tried recently are so obviously focused on getting money from you that it becomes infuriating. If you want to charge people to play your game, just freaking charge them. Don't pop your head up every fives minutes and scream "gimme more money!".
Because PC is in NO WAY easier to pirate and in NO WAY suffers from far more piracy...
This is speculation and we know it. This gentleman is saying his point of view while different persons from another companies (Epic Games, for example) are crying for new consoles. We know there will be new consoles but there is no way to know 100% if they will do OK or not; this is how business works, (let the Dreamcast be the best example for this).
The only thin certain about this article is that I would find a comment from Mr. Bruce Everiss and his zealot wish for the consoles to disappear... If it happens it happens, but I don't know how a person (I'm talking about you, Mr. Everies) can wish for something like that considering how may companies would disappear and how many people would loose their jobs.
The truth is that, after 8 years in the market, still around 200k 360's (only 360) are sold worldwide (66 million in total) Hell! PS3 sold 13.9 million machines in 2011, again after 8 YEARS IN THE MARKET.
Those are amazing numbers and that is irrefutable (you can check them out, in fact, you should).
As a worker in the industry you should stick to reality, not to what you would like to happen... Consoles collapsing since 2008?, you mean the year we had the crisis in the States and (nonetheless) everyone was buying Wii's like possessed and replacements for RROD'd 360's? seriously??
I gave you numbers Mr. but you can believe what you want...
Have a nice day.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Alfonso Sexto on 21st August 2012 9:14am
You make my point for me. They got it wrong by being too avaricious so you didn't invest. When a console game gets it wrong you have already invested.
EXACTLY. That whole parent catching on thing is happening here with some so-called "free" mobile and device games that turned out to not be so "free" after a few clicks, swipes or keyboard strokes.
Of course, I keep reading that actual gambling is the next big casual games thing, so you can set your watch for about a year or so from now and practically bet (pun intended) that this new monetizing scheme will be met with a bit of push-back from parents who think their kids will be the targets (even if they're not).
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Luis Morales on 21st August 2012 1:00pm
And I haven't at all made your point for you. Free to play should be just that - free to play. Maybe we should start calling games like this Drips n Drabs. Because that's exactly what they are.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Fran Mulhern on 21st August 2012 1:14pm
It seems console manufacturers were so in love with their motion controls and 3D gimmicks that they missed the PC growing an entirely new culture of gaming. One that not only revolves around f2p games, but also on a totally different way of interacting with the product; especially live streams.
FTP games do things well of course - simplifying concepts, they often have a strong social aspect, pleasing graphics etc. but ultimately they feed on the impatience of their audience to make money and that's all - there's no commitment whatsoever to giving people a 'quality emotional experience' or any such claptrap. They have done little to move the industry forward, their stacks of cash comes from mixing digital gaming ticks with one-arm banditry. So learn from the gambling sector: why not be happy with your money and stop preaching to the rest of us who are very obviously aiming for different targets.
Onlive just went bust when people claimed it was the future. The technology as an idea, may seem to work but honestly me and alot of people prefer consoles. with every company trying to stick everything people do like going to a movie theater and read books to a mobile phone i dont think dedicated game consoles will dissapear.
Just because people can download and watch movies at home, doesnt mean they stop going to a movie theater. i think consoles will evolve in there own way. Internet, online and free to play will remain an optional method to game alongside consoles.
Anyone else notice how those who predict the end of the console industry tend not to work in the console industry?
Those suggesting F2P monetisation is the future and the key to success, they should take a look at what the P2P players are spending in-game!
Look at DLC levels for example in AAA console games - an up-sell of around £10 on the original purchase of £40. I can imagine the sales of Call of Duty elite and extra map packs dwarves that of a popular F2P game
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Scott Davis on 21st August 2012 5:16pm
Just a note about context. This is the first quote given in the article from Mr. Kim, and we don't know what that is referring to. For all the haters of F2P and all the fans (I'll say it, I love REAL Free to Play) the real issue is the value of the games being offered versus the price, not whether or not the model is good. Too many people seem hung up on a bad experience "It begs for money" or "it sucks until you pay" obviously have just had a bad experience with a F2P title here or there, and sometimes even cross the barrier of core game into casual and blame mobile games for their woes...
Speaking from experience, I would say Mr. Kim probably has a right to speak boldly on the topic. Try Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online or Vindictus and you will find NONE of the issues most people gripe about. You will be begged for money NEVER, you will NEVER have to pay real money to enjoy ALL that the game has to offer. The only time you may inadvertantly profit them is through an ad view on their main page when you launch the game, which can actually be avoided if you play the game through Steam, and one pop-up ad after you close the game, nowhere in between. You can through clever investing and getting lucky with drops earn all the in-game gold to purchase ALMOST EVERYTHING that is available through cash means. The only exception being cash consumables (slightly more powerful potions and auto-revive methods) are not tradeable, but ultimately those are more a leg up for people who are inexperienced/bad at the game, and even then, they have events galore where they hand out cash consumables like candy, usually giving out several for each new character, and there are always regular potions distributed at all stages of the game. As for deep emotional experiences, both games have a rich story and if we are to continue getting the same content that is being played in Korea right now (which they have yet to stray from doing), we can expect it to only get even better. For my take on the implications of Mr. Kim's comments, see my previous post. Peace!
Funny, I always thought console wasn't strong in Korea because PC gaming (full of piracy) is dominant. It should also be expected that a nation that doesn't have a strong console market would look to alternative business models like F2P.
They might soon become dinosaurs in Korea, Mr. Kim, but they'll be around for a while in most other territories.
Then they installed the fastest home internet in the world.
For example, I can't see how Myst or Dear Esther can work as F2P games (based on the fact you will monetize the games in some way). The games are pretty much released, with no new content added because you don't need it (and pretty much there's no point in adding such content) so the part about updating the game based on customer input is out of the question.
Now if we assume the emotional link to such game they downloaded for free will be so great players will go back to the dev's website and donate money so the dev can make more games, that's donation ware and is something indies have been doing long before everyone began to say how F2P is the future.