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FREE-TO-PLAY | BETA


The success of NaturalMotion’s free-to- play title MyHorse has inspired the company to forsee a future where free is the dominant form of game


the future. Such is its confidense in the space the studio already has six of these high-end titles in various stages of development. “Really the biggest leap forward for us was


a few months ago when we started to focus on free-to-play games,” he explains. “Our paid games ended up doing really


well. We had a return on investment of five times on each game which was great, but we thought there was an even bigger opportunity to go free-to-play. “The first game we released on those lines


was MyHorse, again using our technology to create a really believable horse. It ended up better than we expected and is definitely the most successful game we’ve done so far.” So successful in fact, that Reil and product


director Struan Robertson are convinced that their contemporaries in the UK industry should move in on the opportunity quickly to get ahead of the competition for what they say will be one of the biggest gaming markets ever. “There is this huge heritage in the UK of people who know how to create really good 3D, which at the moment I think is completely under utilised and certainly on the console side,” says Reil. “I think that the UK in general is ignoring the free-to-play high-end gaming


DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET


model which is going to emerge as the biggest games market of all time.”


YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN FREE Reil explains that free-to-play 3D gaming on smartphones can provide the emotional connectivity and ‘wow factor’ to mass audiences that animated movies have done over the years with Pixar’s Toy Story and Cars. “If you have a 3D character that you can


interact with and touch, it becomes oddly compelling,” he states. “We think of it as like popping bubble


wrap; it’s something that feels good to do as a mini-game. Sure some people are better than others because it is skill based, but even if you’re not very good you can still enjoy it. I think that goes beyond the typical social games that you would find in 2D on iPhone, where you basically build something but there isn’t really a skill element.” Robertson echoes these sentiments and adds that by creating a tactile game like MyHorse, NaturalMotion Games has formed a userbase that is sticking with the game for the long term, which will also keep on paying. “It’s a very dedicated userbase, the


feedback through our customer support and reviews is pretty detailed and heart warming


stuff,” he explains. “People really do care about the horse, and I think that’s been due to putting it as a realistic horse, making it 3D and putting in the effort in making the animation has really helped sell the idea of owning and looking after a horse that you wouldn’t get in a 2D experience.” Reil warns however: “I do think we’ll see deeper and deeper gameplay all the time anyway, but I would say is if that’s at the expense of accessibility then it won’t work, and that’s basically the big difference.”


A NEW DAWN With the UK industry suffering in recent months, and many studios such as Realtime Worlds, Blackbox Studios, Bizarre Creations and EA Bright Light all falling by the wayside, Reil says NaturalMotion has taken it on as its responsibility to breathe new life into the country’s ailing game development sector with the high-end free-to-play concept. But to do that he says developers in the country need to embrace the change, rather than debate the ethics of the pay model. “The danger in the UK right now is that it is


going to complain from the sidelines for quite some time, then realise in about 12-to-18 months that this isn’t going away


FEBRUARY 2012 | 47


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