Fuse Powered senior producer Rob Sandberg says that free-to-play games have given him more freedom than when he was working in the AAA console space. He detailed his experiences at the IGDA Toronto panel titled “Dr. Gamelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Freemium”.

“When I was making console games, we were so limited in terms of creativity,” Sandberg said. “We had so many people, it was design by committee. We had publishing partners influencing our designs and our games, and we had no control over it. So we were making crap products, and we couldn’t get good deals because our last games were crap products.”

Responding to criticisms of the free-to-play model, Sandberg said, “Get over it. We’re not the video game club, we’re the video game industry, you know We’re here to make money. We’re not saying freemium is going to take over and every piece of entertainment you consume is going to be freemium. All we’re saying is right now there’s a great piece of the pie being carved out if you’re wily and you’re smart and you want to take advantage of it…All I have to say is don’t drape yourself in the flag of being a core gamer just because you don’t like it. There are a lot of very excited, energetic gamers out there that really love these games and enjoy this entertainment.”

Sandberg later added, “One of the biggest challenges I have as a producer is getting game development teams to get on my side. Because they are there for the vision. They’re there for the art. They want to make a kickass game, and it’s my job as a producer to convince people that you can have your cake and eat it, too. You can create high art. If you look at the top grossing games right now, a lot of those games are amazingly good looking, phenomenal games, from an artistic perspective.”

Capybara Games co-founder Nathan Vella chimed in that too often games are designed with money as the first and foremost consideration. “It’s interesting that when free-to-play is discussed, it’s only ever discussed as a business model,” Vella said. “It’s never discussed as enjoyment factor, like, ‘How do I make the best game possible The only way to do it is free-to-play.’ That’s never in the dialog. The dialog is consistently and permanently about how to monetize.”

Source: GamesIndustry International