Industry execs conclude that gamers like free games

Industry execs conclude that gamers like free gamesThe latest declaration regarding the validity of the freemium business model comes to us from MCV. "It turns out free is the price point people want to pay for games," BBC Worldwide executive Robert Nashak told the website.

Nashak goes on to say that freemium raises the quality bar by virtue of putting the power in the hands of the consumer. "If you're not hooking people in you can't monetize," he says. BioWare-Mythic's Eugene Evans agrees, and he says that the model has its roots in the games rental business.

"For me that really did start when I saw the retailer Blockbuster started renting out games. I'm convinced that probably put some studios out of business," Evans explains. "There [were] a lot of people [who] complained about game rentals at the time, but they were often the people whose product was just bad."

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