Forza Horizon, an Xbox 360 game released on Tuesday, is a gorgeous game. The mountains of Colorado and the dynamically shifting autumn day-night cycles make this off-road racing game a sight to behold.
Life After Disc is a series exploring new development in digital gaming platforms, from app stores to browsers to downloadable console games. But something is rotten in Denver. I was checking out a Ferrari in the game's auto shop, and the game's narrator popped in to let me know about one of the game's pricier features.
"What, you don't have enough credits?" she cooed. "Why not buy a car token or two? You really need that car you've been drooling over."
Tokens, you see, cost money. Real-life money. One token is worth roughly one dollar. And just like at the local arcade, tokens get cheaper if you buy more of them at once; a "mega pack" of 105 tokens costs $75. As the game's menu screens gladly inform you: "You can buy as many as you want!"
Is it just me, or does Forza sound just like a freemium game?
From Temple Run to FarmVille, games that cost nothing to play but charge real money for digital items are making some game developers very rich. It makes all the sense in the world that Microsoft would want to get that action going on Xbox. The problem is, Forza Horizon is not free-to-play. It costs $60, just like every other game.
What if it didn't?
Imagine if Forza Horizon was free to download. First of all, Microsoft would immediately have the game in far more players' hands. Horizon's leaderboards would be bursting with people you actually know. Crafting custom car decals would be a more worthwhile pursuit, because you'd have a massive audience to share them with.
A racing game, as Microsoft has already clearly decided, has many opportunities for monetization. Horizon already lets players use tokens to buy new cars, reveal hidden features and temporarily boost the rewards that players earn when they win a race.
Microsoft has already said that it will release monthly packs of downloadable cars and a separate $20 expansion pack before the end of the year. It is already offering players the option to spend $40 on a "season pass" which guarantees access to all this additional content.
Being hit up for money while playing a free game is expected. It's not considered an imposition on players.
In contrast, being asked for more money at every turn while playing something that already cost $60 can really rub players the wrong way.
Free needn't be the sole domain of cheaply made games. Top executives at Electronic Arts are declaring that "the future is freemium," and 12 million people are playing the free-to-play game League of Legends every day. We're far past the point of denying that there is demand from traditional, hardcore gamers for freemium games.
And no, Happy Wars – the first freemium game to be released for Xbox 360 – is not a good test case. Critics bludgeoned it for its thin gameplay. Microsoft would be nuts to allow the fate of Happy Wars to determine the fate of free-to-play games on the Xbox.
No one wants to pay $60 for a game and then have a lady in their headset try to flirt them into spending more money on fake coins. Freemium works because of the free, not just because of the premiums. It can work for console games just as well as mobile. All we need is for a major franchise like Forza to be the first to take the risk.
