How Free is Freemium?
Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 11:28AM 
Playing Gun Bros this weekend I think I finally "get" the dual-income Freemium business model.
I was always puzzled about why you need to design two different kinds of money in a Freemium game (at least, this type of Freemium game.) Why not just one? But now I get it -- Money A is is for the cheapos out there (like me) who just want to earn money by grinding, Money B is for people who give a little back to the developers -- who are willing to click on ads, invite Friends, or pay out real money -- in exchange for extra special buffs or upgrades. (Of course you can buy extra Money A too if you want.)
I have to say, to my surprise I'm even finding Gun Bros fun. It's a silly game, the art is cute, the game is entertaining, and the plentiful upgrades are pretty satisfying. Even the economy -- while it seemed complicated at first -- is not overly annoying. Haven't actually paid any money yet, although I've definitely felt the temptation.
We've been talking a lot at Vector Unit about whether it makes sense for us to try and design a game around this type of economy, rather than our usual "old fashioned" way of just making games that people pay for once and then just...play.
Freemium is tempting. You get craptons of downloads, and from everything we've seen if you design the game right, you can make a lot more money than you can with a regular pay-to-play game. Also it helps combat piracy (why pirate a free game?)
But man, I don't know. I still have some problems with this whole model.
For one thing, it seems odd to call these games "casual" when in fact the currency management is as complicated as any mid-level console RPG. It seriously took me a while to figure out Gun Bros, and it's not even complicated compared to Farmville or something.
But also, I think there's something kind of messed up about a game that allows -- even encourages -- players to spend this much money. In Gun Bros, the cheapest coin package you can buy is $2.99 -- which is probably about how much the game would cost if it were a P2P game. The biggest package of in-game booster currency you can buy costs $199. TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS. For a simple dual stick shooter!
I wonder if there will ever be some kind of backlash against games like this and Farmville. From a social-good standpoint, it seems like there's a very fine line between online gambling addiction and Freemium gaming compulsion.
And what about the gamers who support these "free" games, who complain about mobile games that you have to pay for? Do they realize what they're giving up? That the game mechanics are designed around increasing your frustration and impatience, rather than your entertainment and enjoyment?
I'm not saying we're not going to try this out at some point. Man, the numbers don't lie. But I still feel like there's something to be said for paying $2, or $5, or -- gasp -- even $20 or more for a clean, well designed game experience that doesn't ask anything from me other than my pleasure.
Freemium, Mobile Games 
Reader Comments (6)
Hi, i agree on the whole freemium statement. but who cares about downloa numbers, i downloaded and deleted gun bros 3/4 times if you extrapolate that the numbers wil decrease by 25%. Also on a critical note to you guys: why on earth would you make nvidia only game?? I hope you got some got royalties for that... as as result android dev community made a driver that runs any cpu / gpu combo.
Hi Dennie -
We are actually working on a version of the game that will run on other high-end Android devices (as well as iOS). It'll be available sometime in late October. Stay tuned!
When it comes to freemium games I'll play them until I hit whatever sort of paywall is built in, be it excessive grind without paying or excessive advertisements. If I figure I got enough enjoyment out of it I might do a one time payment to reward the developer, play until whatever the payment gave me runs out, and then be done with it. In many cases I don't pay the dev anything as the paywall comes up much too fast for me to feel the dev is worth supporting. I honestly hate this direction in gaming as I too have noticed how you can easily spend more than the flat rate for what the game would have cost if it wasn't freemium.
Another issue that I wonder about is what effect freemium games might have on children. Many online freemium games for children build a community where you're not part of the in-crowd unless you too have bought digital clothing for your character, have the special $1.99 pet rabbit, and have paid for the extra flashy $1.49 fireworks to use in the game's hub city. (All prices made up) It's a good way to make a parent pull his or her hair out from incessant pleading that those hot pink shoes only cost 10 uberpoints, can't daddy buy her 10 uberpoints!?! The superficial "Keeping up with the Jonses" mentality is not something I'd want a game to teach children. I'd much rather have them learn that every barrel and crate in the world should be broken on the off chance they will reveal gold coins. ;) Admittedly this is more of a parenting issue than a developer issue, but when talking about the social-good, it's certainly something to consider.
So my post is much longer than I was originally aiming for... I might as well continue on with my thoughts on Tegra exclusivity. I don't mind it at all as at least that's one way you can weed out the idiots who try to play your game on their G1 and post 1 star reviews claiming your game sucks because it won't run on said G1. Also, seeing what a game can do that puts something like the Tegra as the minimum allowed hardware is quite awesome. I've played enough games that would've felt comfortable on my NES or SNES, thank you very much. Don't get me wrong, many are fun, but jeez, let's start raising the bar a little people.
Thanks for your comments, Chris! Very thoughtful, and I totally agree with you about the kids, and for the most part about the paywall stuff. Most freemium games I'm playing these days are for research purposes, but when I do find one I like, I'll usually buy a little something just like you say to reward the devs. I know how much work goes into these things, even the ones that aren't great.
Another developer posted a great story-based article on this whole phenomenom here:
http://insertcredit.com/2011/09/22/who-killed-videogames-a-ghost-story/
It's pretty funny -- and kind of depressing.
Hi! Actually, Freemium is a good and also bad model. As Chris said above, I'd usually just play till I hit a wall upon which it's impossible to advance without paying for upgrades. One recent example is Frontline Commando.
I don't know, but there's one game which is free to donwload based on the Freemium model - Wind Up Knight - which I am actually about to finish without forking out cash. Each level costs $0.99, but if you're good enough, you can advance without actually paying.
I think you should venture into Freemium at least once. Try the Wind Up Knight model - where its difficult but not impossible to finish the game w/o paying.
But what I hate most is paying $6.99 for a game and then there is in-app purchases as well like the Modern Combat 3 game!