Meanwhile at Valve
While it was only last year that Valve’s popular team-based FPS Team Fortress 2 went free to play, it has had elements of the “freemium” model about it for some time, with players being able to buy weapons, hats and other useless addons for their avatars. Today, however, the company announced its latest gamemode which seems to cement the game firmly in the freemium model.
“Free to play gets a lot of criticism as a “pay to win” sort of model” said Gabe Newell in an interview I made up. “We at Valve are pretty hot on the whole “thinking outside the box”, so we looked at this criticism and thought, what if we literally introduce a pay to win gamemode? And tada, we had the idea for The Lottery!”
The update, which will be rolled out “soon”, will feature a new “TV-studio-themed map” where users will be able to purchase items known only as “lottery tickets” using easy in-app purchases. “A standard $2 “ticket” will entitle the player to one go at our machine” said Newell. “And it’s literally a machine. Not a robot or anything, that would be crazy.” Rather than winning the more conventional cash prize, however, players will have the chance of winning slightly rare hats and other objects.No new weapons or abilities will be added in the update. It’s literally just lottery tickets.
Newell finished off by stating that “yes, we’re going to be including the Supply Crates in the prize bag. Because if there’s one thing our market research shows, it’s that players will literally buy anything we offer them. No refunds.”
Leave a Reply