Ambitious mech-shooter goes live on December 12th Publisher Meteor raises $18m in VC cash By Michael French
THE FIRM behind upcoming free game Hawkenhas scored an extra $18m in VC funding. And it says it can use the money to quickly build an audience of over 10m players. The PC title from Meteor Entertainment is due for a global roll out on December 12th, and this week closed a second round of funding. Hawkenis the antithesis of blockbusters like Call of Duty.
There is no middle man in free-to- play. It’s great. Khang Le, Adhesive
Square Enix: £20 iPhone games do work
Free-to-play isn’t the only direction, says Final Fantasy publisher By Christopher Dring
PUBLISHER Square Enix has dismissed the notion that free-to-play is the only business model for mobile. The firm says it has had success with its premium- priced iOS titles, including episodic title Final Fantasy Dimensions, which costs in total £19.99.
“It’s actually done a lot more revenue than a lot of free-to-play with in-app purchases or advertising
We’ve done more revenue than
many F2P apps. Antony Douglas, Square Enix
“ “
models,” said Square Enix’s mobile general manager Antony Douglas. “You’ve got to sell 12 times that in some cases to get to one game on that £14.99/£20 model. “Customer behaviour is changing all the time so it’s one of many business models that we have and we have all the others under scrutiny as well.
“What I will say about the business model is that it’s not fixed. Everyone says
A total cost of £19.99 for FF Dimensions hasn’t deterred gamers
free-to-play is the future and that’s absolutely part of it, but that will change. “If you’re playing a lengthy £20 RPG title, there will be an audience for that. Some people won’t go for it but those people could spend £30 on resource management
games. We’re looking into it to see how people respond. “We can’t show too much in the way of figures but it hasn’t had the negative sales response that some people would think.” Square Enix: 020 8636 3000
paired with an equally new publisher to launch the game. The results have impressed gamers, with preview videos
New studio Adhesive built it using the Unreal engine and
scoring millions of YouTube views for the last year with little marketing.
When the title goes live next month, the developer hopes to build the same size audience as retail hits like Call of Dutyand F2P giant League of Legends. “We’re our own publisher and our own developer – we answer to nobody except the consumer,” Khang Le, creative director and Adhesive co-founder, told MCV.
“There is no middle man. It’s great. The free-to-play model solves piracy, and while there’s a stigma around it in some quarters, that is changing. “We’ve spent a long time polishing the game and building it to be very satisfying from the off. “Free means you can start small but get very big – just look at Minecraft.”