Free-to-play has become it's own genre over the last few years in the video game industry. Some people few free-to-play games as being the downfall of video games, where players are given only so much free to play and then charged real world for various in game items.
While it wasn't the first, the most popular free-to-play game that sparked the practice was Farmville. Since then, console gaming has been searching for ways to adopt the free-to-play model, and some games have found success.
"FX Pinball" on the Xbox 360 is one of those games, giving you just enough to hook you and then making you pay for more. It's been wildly successful as well, it's a quality game and the additional content expands on the game.
Playstation 3 and "Uncharted" fans will be happy to hear that "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception" is going free to play....at least the multiplayer portion is.
It was rumored a week ago that Naughty Dog was going to try it's hand at the free-to-play genre, and today they not only officially announced the MP portion of "Uncharted 3" was going free-to-play, but it launches today on the PSN as well.
The PSN download of "Uncharted 3" has a ton of microtransaction options available to them. The first 15 levels of the multiplayer component is free for everyone, after that, you gotta pony up some cash.
Lead game designer for Naughty Dog, Robert Cogburn, told Joystiq they have two reasons behind going free-to-play. One is to get the MP porton of "Uncharted 3" going again and test freemium waters for future games.
Players will be able to raise the level cap to 25 via microtransactions. Co-op won't be included in free-to-play, instead a co-op arena and adventure modes are now their own separate game modes available as premium downloadable content (in other words, you pay).
Playstation 3 owners who haven't played "Uncharted 3" or those that have gotten rid of the game now have something to play for free in their spare time. Who said the Playstation Network wasn't that great?
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