It's still a product that wants you to spend money on microtransactions, and it is not exempt from the usual pressures this puts on design. And, to some extent, who can blame it? It's an incredibly smart strategy.īy indirectly insulting the business model to an audience of F2P sceptics, Bethesda positions itself as an exception to the supposedly tight-fisted, evil, money-grabbing norm.īut the narrative's not true, is it? Fallout Shelter is still a free-to-play game. This, of course, is something that Bethesda has been more than happy to perpetuate as a means of promoting Fallout Shelter. There appears to be very little crossover between the RPG players comprising the Fallout fanbase and those actively engaging with free-to-play mobile games, meaning that Bethesda's core audience is one that's negatively predisposed to the business model despite having little interaction with it.
It's achieving goodwill by pitting itself against an idea of free-to-play game design that doesn't actually exist, a monsterised amalgam of every cash-grab scandal that's been paraded in front of the hardcore gamer crowd, from Dungeon Keeper to Theme Park.ĭungeon Keeper was criticised for its F2P timers In fact, I've seen nothing but positivity - and players evidently do not feel ripped off by its systems.īut snide comments like this, effectively casting a scornful eye at free-to-play and saying "we're better than this," are certainly reductive and unhelpful. There's been no backlash against Fallout Shelter. “It did monetisation in a way that people didn’t have a problem with,” he went on.Īnd he's not wrong to say that. “It doesn’t have our hand in your pocket,” said Pete Hines, explaining why he felt the game had been well-received.
Something about the way Bethesda has communicated Fallout Shelter's $5.1 million success- a major victory in its own eyes, rather less so when judged against the broader mobile landscape - has been bothering me.įallout Shelter, we've been told, is not like other free-to-play games.
0 kommentar(er)
