Free-Play MMO Market Too Crowded, Says Publisher

With Blizzard snatching up millions of subscribers for its massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, the free-to-play market is saturated, says the co-founder of free-to-play MMO company Reality Gap.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Reality Gap’s J. Mark Hood, whose MMOs include Monato Esprit and Battleswarm: Field of Honor, says he thinks that many MMO makers are releasing their games as free-to-play simply because they feel they cannot compete with the big MMO publishers.

“How do you compete with (the massive budgets) that Activision Blizzard and EA are doing right now?” Hood said. “Unless you have a huge company and a huge amount of capital, there are not a lot of ways to do that.”

Hood also said that many companies are attempting to make profits in the online space by creating casual titles or porting Asian MMOs.

But it’s not just the Asian or casual MMOs that are offering a free-to-play experience. Hardcore MMOs that have waning subscriber numbers have turned to the free-to-play model. On Tuesday, Dungeons & Dungeons Online re-launched as a free-to-play title, letting players download the game for free and pay for items and content a la carte.