These days, the subscription model has seemingly become less ideal for some developers, as free-to-play is quickly becoming the industry standard for online and mobile games. Famed developer Peter Molyneux hints how Godus will try to buck this new tradition.
In what he calls an “invest-to-play” strategy, Molyneux explains that the title free-to-play simply doesn’t fit their vision. “There cannot be a term that is less true. What we need is a new term. And that term is more like ‘invest-to- play’. What really are we doing? We are tempting people to invest some of their money into a game.” He says.
While Molyneux doesn’t go into details of exactly how this new system will work, it sounds reminiscent of what we’ve heard from other developers, which rewards early investors who inject money into the project during the games lifecycle at the development stage, with the game costing more to purchase the closer it gets to its release date.
Bucking conventions doesn’t come without risk, and when asked if he’s worried if this latest gamble will fail to generate revenue, he reveals, “Yeah, I’m worried about that, but those risks are worth taking. We could layer in ‘it takes six days to build this house’, and maybe we’d make a shitload of money, but that’s not my ambition for games. There has to be a better way.”
Godus will be available for Windows, Mac, iPad and Android OS.