Why make the game free-to-play?
1. So our success depends upon the gameplay itself (more than marketing).
Players have a lot of gaming choices. Convincing people to pay $50, $30, or even $20 for a title requires a very large marketing budget and even then there is no guarantee that people will buy. You recognize "Tribes" as a great brand, and we recognize "Tribes" as great brand, but the majority of today's gamers do not necessarily recognize the Tribes franchise. We'd honestly rather put more of our resources on game development and ongoing updates versus a huge marketing campaign. At the same time our Dev Team is working incredibly hard on the title and we DO want a large number of people to become aware of the game, to try the game, and hopefully enjoy the game for many years. We bought the franchise because we think the gameplay deserves a much larger audience than it's ever found before. And we believe the most effective way to build a large community is a fun & balanced core game, with strong word-of-mouth combined with a low barrier of entry. In terms of low barrier of entry it is simply hard to beat "FREE". By offering a AAA game as free-to-play we'll have the largest number of people exposed to the game and trying the game. After that the game can succeed or fail on its own merits.
2. We're in this for the long-term.... And, we like to iterate along the way.
If you are looking for a game that will remain exactly the same from Open Beta for the next few years, Tribes: Ascend will likely not be for you. As a studio we experiment and innovate and we think the best games are the results of constant iteration and update. In fact, for us launching the game is more like the beginning than the end. But constant updates require a development team well past launch. And maintaining that development team means continued revenue from the game to pay their salaries. Based on Global Agenda, and other F2P games, we have seen that a meaningful percentage of players will gladly pay for optional items and services if they enjoy the game. We've also seen that the majority of players may never spend a dime. And that is fine. Because those paying players fund ongoing updates and support for the entire population. So, we believe this model gives us the best opportunity to grow both the game and the community over time; by players who pay only when they choose to.
3. Free and Balanced.
Two years ago I don't think you could have found a Hi-Rez employee playing a free-to-play game. The games we tried were too grindy, or too old-looking, or too 'pay2win' to too something-else-bad. But the times they are changing. There are now free-to-play games where the gameplay is not unbalanced by purchases, including, but definitely not limited to, our own Global Agenda. With Tribes: Ascend we intend to support balanced and very competitive gameplay while also supporting micro-transactions.
Can I 'pay-2-win'?
No. Even as a 'free-to-play' game our general philosophy is to make all gameplay affecting items and loadouts earnable thru gameplay.
However we will allow players a path to earn loadouts and items more quickly by spending their money rather than their time. And we will offer a variety of cosmetic/prestige items for sale that do not affect game balance.
We will not be using the same exact system as Global Agenda, but you can see that general philosophy in place within Global Agenda. When speaking with IGN we described our intent to have load-outs earnable thru gameplay or purchasable, but to also maintain balance between all the load-outs. The writer found that analogous to League of Legends in that their champions are earn-able or purchasable but without any power discrepancy between the free ones, earned ones, or bought ones. And it is a model/game that has been embraced by the e-sports/competitive community. The writer's analogy is fitting but only goes so far since the Tribes: Ascend gameplay is so different.
Why introduce 'load-outs'? Why limit the number of in-hand weapons?
We are testing defined load-outs because we believe that makes Tribes: Ascend most interesting for the seasoned/competitive player. It has a side-benefit benefit of being more accessible for new players but that was a secondary consideration. We arrived at this gameplay design decision independent of the free-to-play business model decision.
In our experience the best, most intense Tribes matches feel more like a team sport than just an FPS. In sports there are various roles and specializations and that is what we are emulating. (In basketball I get to specialize as power-forward; i'm not just a guy chasing the ball). Tribes 2 offered similar 'template' roles for starting players. And additional roles developed organically from Tribes competitive play on objective-based maps. We are building on both of these role/load-out concepts and testing constraints around the number of 'load-outs' each individual player could choose to take into a match; adding a strategic and team-coordination element at least at the competitive level. With Constraints comes Creativity.
We'll be communicating more detail on load-outs in the future. And almost certainly some of the specifics we are currently testing within Closed Alpha will change based on testing and feedback.
