How we pay for our games

[Zloth]

Just how many models have we had, anyway!? I know this is a new industry, but damn!

• Pay everything up front.
• Pay very little up front but, as soon as you lose, it's game over. (Arcade style.)
• Shareware: the game is free, but you are asked to pay the developers directly. (Sometimes, they might ask you to pay a charity of some kind instead.)
• Cripple-ware: the game is free to start, but you need to pay to get past a certain point, save your game, or play for longer than a certain amount of time. After that, you have to pay the developers, who then give you a code to fully enable the game. (Doom used this method to great success.)
• DLC: Pay for the main game up front. For a little extra, we can add a bit more - pick and choose the options you want to buy.
• Expand+DLC: Here's your main game. For quite a bit extra, we'll add significantly to the game over the years. Plus, you can get little DLCs as well. Both are optional. (Strategy games and Egosoft's X series have used this a lot.)
• Pay as you play: The game is free, you'll be paying some amount per hour. That money will (at least partially) be used to make the game better. I haven't seen this one used in ages, but it was common back in the days of CompuServer, Americal Online, and GEnie.
• Pay as you play but cheaper for the skilled: The arcade model but, instead of being game over when you lose, you can pump in a few more quarters and keep going.
• Monthly Subscription: Play as much as you like, paying some amount per month. The initial game could be free, extra cheap, or full price (with one month free service).
• Monthly Subscription + DLC/Expansions: Same as monthly subscriptions, but you can pay more for small things (probably nothing that makes you stronger). Every year or two, there will be a big expansion that costs quite a bit but is optional to buy. Theoretically, anyway - kinda rough to be stuck back in the same old areas while all your friends rush off to the new digs.
• Free to play: The game costs nothing. Any expansions they do cost nothing. Some DLC may even be free. However, they often come close to being cripple-ware, where you must pay something to keep making progress. DLC that costs money will sometimes give the player an advantage over other players (though this is frowned upon in many of the bigger operations). As people continuing to play is the sole source of income, programs work really hard to get you to cough up a little cash as you go.
• Advertisement Game: The game is free. However, the game is as much an advertisement as a game. (The only game I can remember that was successful was the America's Army games.)
• Freeware: It won't cost you anything to play the whole thing. No advertisements, no guilt trips, no cash.
• A cut of the take: Casinos have gone online with their games, so their method of making money came along with them.
• Advertisements in game: a free game but, like a TV or radio station, you'll have advertisements show up now and then.
• Data collection: a free game, but it gathers a whole bunch of data about you - presumably so they can give you targeted advertising.
• Bulk Monthly Subscription: game is free and you pay per month, however, your subscription covers multiple games. (E.g. GamePass)
• Game given away free as part of some promotion. It might be from a store (GOG), a contest from PC Gamer, or the publisher. Afterward, the game costs money again.

Am I forgetting any? I'm only listing things that give some sort of benefit to the developers (even if it's just warm fuzzies), not things like pirating, used game sales, or abandon-ware.

Anyone have any favorites?

 

[Frag Maniac]

I tend to avoid subscription, so called free to play, and ad based games, so 99% of that doesn't apply to me.

Consider this though, if there weren't so many suckers eager to jump into that kind of crap, it would mostly be non existent.

Maybe it's just the old fart in me, but I've always been a cash and carry type of guy. If it doesn't have everything I want up front, I won't touch it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm not sure how common this is, but I think some games get money by taking a cut from any transactions between players using actual money. I assume that's how most online poker games and similar casino style games work. I'm not sure how common it is in other online games, but I think I've seen/read about it before.

 

[Zloth]

Oh yeah! I also forgot the "null case" of freeware. Added to the list.

 

[Hitobat]

I think adware is missing?

Recent examples I've seen are essentially a free-to-play type game, but if you don't want to directly pay money you can instead watch adverts (and advertisers pay the developers money). But watching the ads doesn't get you as much progression as paying.

So this is somewhat distinct from the current "advertising game" category. Extra examples there I can think of include Cool Spot and Zool, both of which are incredibly old now.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm not sure how common this is, but I think some games get money by taking a cut from any transactions between players using actual money. I assume that's how most online poker games and similar casino style games work. I'm not sure how common it is in other online games, but I think I've seen/read about it before.

I've never understood why so many people throw money away on gambling. Those whom engage in such activities rarely win enough to make it worthwhile on a regular basis, and the casinos are pretty good at spotting and stopping those whom figure out ways to beat the system, like card counters.

It's no wonder most local and the federal government now have lotteries and legal gambling, there's just so many people whom are caught up in wishful thinking they don't see their cash being taken.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Almost everything I play now is on Game Pass. Every once in a while, I'll get a gift card as a gift and buy something. But it's mostly subscription for me.

 

[Pifanjr]

What about the games that are given away for free by Epic? A lot of those still fall in the DLC category, but with a free base game, but some just give you the entire game. Even in those latter cases, it's not exactly freeware, as it's obviously a sort of advertisement for the Epic store.

Other platforms give out games occasionally as well, though I'm not sure who's initiative it is in those cases (the platform or the publisher).

 

[Zloth]

Added more. That post is getting LONG!

 

[Brian Boru]

Am I forgetting any?

There's the free first-in-series model, designed to increase purchases of the sequels—that's quite common in the fiction book industry, and I've seen it in games too, but can't recall an example—other than very old games going free like the original C&C and Red Alert.

The Picross Touch game I played and wrote about recently is fully freeware, but the dev has DLCs which are only donation ware—ie no extra content:

Cripple-ware:

I suppose that covers free demos, a feature of casual games—eg BigFish have an hour-long demo for every game.

I guess DRM-free is another approach, like GOG. Altho GOG tends to add some small goodies when available—art book, score etc—the main hook is that there are no hooks. Again, this has proven very successful in parts of the book industry—Baen might be the best known example.

That post is getting LONG!

Glad to help

 

[Pifanjr]

There's the free first-in-series model, designed to increase purchases of the sequels—that's quite common in the fiction book industry, and I've seen it in games too, but can't recall an example—other than very old games going free like the original C&C and Red Alert.

I think that falls under the "promotion" category. Though I think the "DLC" category could also include the fact that the base game can be free, such as with Crusader Kings 2 and The Sims 4.

The Picross Touch game I played and wrote about recently is fully freeware, but the dev has DLCs which are only donation ware—ie no extra content:

So shareware then, not freeware (as defined by Zloth).

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I used to try to snag all of the free Epic games, but I eventually realized that I will never play the majority of them. So now, I only grab the ones I know I'm interested in, which hasn't been much for a long time.

 

[danthegamer]

Sorry didnt read the whole thread, but did you include 'no cost - data collection' model?

Free doesnt exist. Its a made up figment of someones imagination that violates the laws of physics.

 

[Zloth]

Sorry didnt read the whole thread, but did you include 'no cost - data collection' model?

Nope, but it's there now!

Free doesnt exist. Its a made up figment of someones imagination that violates the laws of physics.

Of course it does!

 

[Rolfil]

I've moved mostly to Game Pass. Occasionally I might buy a game if it is heavily discounted.
When ATS Texas was released it cost £14.99, normally I would have bought it but I'll wait for it to come down in price.

The last game I actually purchased at full price was New World, but as usual I just got burned out after 9 months of playing an MMORPG.

 

[DXCHASE]

Mine would be DLC, "bulk" subscription/subscriptions, then random other ways.

Ive paid for my main game (Destiny 2) up front and buy all the necessary expansions/seasons it releases over the years. This is the only game i do this for. Its kinda like my WoW. Ive been at it for years and will be for years to come...probably.

Next i use gamepass for...pretty much anything else. Its a good way for me to decide if i want to spend the money of putting it in my steam library. There is my Humble Bundle subscription (been doing this for about 4 or 5 years now) 8-13 bucks a month and get 8 games with one usually being a AAA game, it used to be more, but its still worth using. Its also for charity. I also wind up passing a bunch along to others which i like doing. Then theres amazons random free games/in-game content for having amazon prime. Discord subscriptions come with games but i dont play them. Thats all i subscribe to atm.

And then just random other ways depending on the game. I have put money into F2P games, ad-heavy games etc. Depends on how i can get what i want to play really.

I do get the occasional AAA game i cant get anywhere other than either a specific launcher (diablo 2/call of duty on battlenet) or discounts through 3rd party stores like GMG or Fanatical too which is how i got elden ring for under 30 bucks, not steams "discount".

 

[Geselar]

Thank you for sharing.

 

[Aramaa11]

Game payment models have changed so much over the years! I still think shareware was one of the coolest ideas—letting people try a game for free and pay if they liked it. These days, I use bulk subscriptions like GamePass a lot since it’s great for trying different games without spending too much. I also noticed platforms like Ok Win Game doing their own thing with gaming services. Pretty interesting how it all keeps evolving!

 

[mjs warlord]

Game payment models have changed so much over the years! I still think shareware was one of the coolest ideas—letting people try a game for free and pay if they liked it. These days, I use bulk subscriptions like GamePass a lot since it’s great for trying different games without spending too much

steam give games the tag play free for the weekend , i never tried any but i would imagine that after the weekend you have to pay for it or uninstall it. I suppose this could be the equivalent of shareware.

 

[mjs warlord]

Both steam , epic and games makers are very crafty with the tactics they employ to get you to spend money.

Epic give you a free game and list all the others in the series and the dlc's so that they can get money from you , for example they gave a plagues tale innocence free and at the side of the download showed requiem to try and get you to buy it.

Both steam and epic show you bundle packages when you type in the name of a game to try and get you to spend more , example , if you are new to gaming you probably wont know their are 13 assassins creed games.

Loads of good quality games can be got for free because they want you to use micro payments or buy dlc's.
In a lot of cases you have to decide if you are going to walk away or spend money and of course if you dont spend enough it will be a hard grind and even then you can still end up getting beat by players who have spent more money than you.

Many years ago pc gamer did a feature on FTP and a lot of games companies said they only need 3% of players to spend money to make it worthwhile

Free to play should be re-named pay to win.

 

[Pifanjr]

Free to play should be re-named pay to win.

Free To Play is indeed a weird label, because in my experience it's mostly applied to games with microtransactions. Games without microtransactions are just called free. Though a lot of free games without microtransactions on Steam are tagged by users as Free To Play, so there are definitely people who do use it for free games as well.

There is a big difference between Free To Play games that only sell cosmetics and those that sell actual power-ups. The latter I would call Pay To Win, but there isn't a proper name for the former.

There's also a middle ground where a game only sells single-time boosts, usually to cut down on grinding or to add some convenience. Stuff like adding more storage tabs in MMO's. These are things you can't just keep buying over and over to become more powerful, but they do make getting powerful easier.

It's pretty hard to find a list of only completely free games on Steam. Even using SteamDB, where I can filter out games with an in-app store, I can't filter out games that sell DLC and there are a lot of free "Prologue" games that are basically demos for paid games.

 

[Zloth]

steam give games the tag play free for the weekend , i never tried any but i would imagine that after the weekend you have to pay for it or uninstall it. I suppose this could be the equivalent of shareware.

Good point. It's short-term, but it does fit. (Oh, and you don't have to uninstall it, but it won't run anymore so there's not much point in keeping it.)

 

[January's Ghost]

Just how many models have we had, anyway!? I know this is a new industry, but damn!

SNIP

Anyone have any favorites?

Great list, awesome post. I do not have a favorite, but I buy most of my games outright and subscribe to a couple of MMOs a couple months out of the year. I never done anything like Gamepass or Ubi+ (save when Gamepass was 1 dollar for a month and I only played Starfield for about 4 hours).

 

[red_5ive]

But what do you call games like Destiny where they try to fool you into thinking DLC content is going through the same areas over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. And after that, do it again a dozen more times after you just did it a dozen times.

And when you start to worry that they're running out of content, they get really creative and break the monotony by making you go through the same areas backward!

 

[JCgames]

All the free to play games I've ever played have always been pay to reduce grind, or pay to unlock unique looks or play styles/areas.

I don't play many, but if I enjoy it I will spend some money as the ones I have enjoyed I've played at least more than 50 hours and a few many more.

I like the model as I'm never spending a dime on a game I don't really enjoy which is something I can't say about other ways. I've spent at least a grand on games I don't like over my life time.

They are not necessarily bad games, just bad for me. It's why I like the dlc model as well. I've never spent money on dlc unless I really enjoy the game. So all dlc money I've spent has been worth it, with the exception of complete game bundles, but in those cases I'm paying 5-10 dollars for everything and I'm OK with not liking something at that

After paying full price for quake 3, ever quest 2, wow, Oblivion and fallout 3, popular games i didnt like and unpopular ones like dragon age 2 and mass effect 3. (Mads effect 3 has turned around in public opinion 12 years later but were games that got destroyed when they came out i decided to just wait and buy them for lower price and take more chances it's really worked out .

nearly 20 years later i have such a back log I could play a new game a month for 2 years and I'd still have more to get too so it's just not worth it anyway..


So basically, I think there is room for all models, but I really enjoy dlc and support on games for years. it's still cheaper than buying at launch or monthly MMOs