Microsoft Free To Play Rumor Time

According to IGN and their unnamed “trusted source”, Microsoft will make ’free-to-play’ an available option for developers “sometime next year”. We’ve all seen the free-to-play model work for games like MapleStory and League of Legends, but we have yet to see this sort of market carry over onto the consoles. We’ll have to assume that the micro-transactions that make free-to-play games tick will be in the form of Microsoft points – at the very least I’d hope so. The addition of a second wall of space bucks might make things a little complicated as well as a huge turn-off for those not used to how the free-to-play scene works. As little information is known, we simply can only follow the small trails that hint towards this. IGN notes a Kinect title named Joy Ride that appeared at E3 ‘09, but has since changed entirely. Joy Ride would have been available to Gold and Silver Xbox Live members, and charge you for customization options within the game.

My first inclination is to assume that most free-to-play games may be available to strictly Xbox Live Gold members, but that would limit an already potentially niche market, an idea that would prove to be ultimately detrimental to the (for lack of a better term) experiment. The fact is, we can speculate until we’re blue in the face, but there aren’t enough cookie crumbs to say anything definitive yet.