The future
The path ahead for free-to-play
What’s next for free-to-play? Can games that cost nothing continue to thrive? The answer is yes, but only the biggest can really keep going. Nothing is ever really free, so they rely on microtransactions for things like skins, or big drops of money from players who want to have everything, and have it fast. So what’s the future of online looking like?
Battle royale might have been the biggest trend in recent years, but plenty of casualties suggest its popularity is fading. Recent PC hit Escape From Tarkov heralds the latest trend, with plenty of upcoming games like
Hyenas and, if rumours are to be believed, Call Of Duty tackling the ‘player versus player versus environment’ (PvPvE) ‘extraction shooter’, in which large groups of players battle it out for loot before getting the heck out of there, competing for a high score rather than simply survival. Capcom’s dino-shooter Exoprimal also has its sights set on PvPvE; although it’s roundbased, players fighting dinosaur enemies before going head-tohead at the very end.
Asymmetrical games, where a group of players fight a lone one who is essentially doing the job of an enemy AI, continue to pop up. Dead By Daylight remains the biggest, with lots of creepy killers and survivors to mess with, and others have struggled to compete. Perhaps a free-toplay approach could see more of these flourish rather than fail? Rest assured though, no matter how free-to-play approaches these online trends of the future, we’ll be here to tell you what’s worth your time.
“In ‘extraction shooters’ large groups of players battle it out for loot before getting the heck out.”