Publishers need to stop over-exploiting gamers by charging for additional content or risk losing sales, according to CD Projekt RED co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwinski.
Mr Iwinski believes the ever-present issue of DRM and new pricing models for additional content will eventually push consumers away from a publisher's products.
“When we had that publishing deal, we went to the publisher, and said, ‘So we have this idea where we make all this stuff, all this new content, and you don’t pay anything for it, we give it away for free. How about that?’" explained Mr Iwinski. "The publisher went all big-eyed and said, ‘Whoa! Let’s charge 10 dollars! 10 Euro!’ But we believed that we would sell more units if we put it out for free."
Selling extra game content for free contributed to a boost in sales for the developer, according to Mr Iwinski. “You can always do it from two angles, and sadly I see the industry trending toward over-exploiting the gamer, and I think this will come back to the publishers that are doing that, and eventually, people will stop buying their stuff."
He is strongly of the opinion that giving away content for free can actually strengthen a game's sales, which would benefit the developer in the long run.
Do you agree that paid content might push you away from purchasing games from a publisher in future?
Source: Gamasutra
By Gaetano Prestia - Bio