Red 5 CEO: FireFall to be Free To Play
FireFall
Mark Kern, CEO for Firefall development studio Red 5, makes the shocking announcement at the Penny Arcade Expo that FireFall will be both free to download and free to play.
Yes, ex-Blizzard dev and CEO, Kern, stated that there will be micro-transactions placed in the game, but the purchase-able items will not be game breaking additions. These items may be cosmetic changes or new weaponry, but you will still be on the same level as those who choose not to pay for the game.
This deal does seem a bit too good to be true. Many issues arise when a game is free to play. Either the game developers are not bringing in enough money and the game will have a short life span or the game will see items that imbalance the competitive nature of the game. However, Mark Kern states that this will not be the case. There will be both purchase-able items and a balanced, free to play game.
For those of you wondering why this is a big deal, simply take a look at the screenshots associated with this post. This game is amazingly well done. The graphics are top notch, seemingly requiring advanced, high-end, computers to be able to achieve max specs. The style of the game is another wonder, with a pseudo-cell shaded yet realistic mix in character and environment design.
It is usually thought that when a game is free to play, the game developers are unable to provide the funding for a high-end game or that the game will be of low quality. This game seems to bust through both of those stereotypes with its high quality graphics and in-depth gameplay.
Hopefully, Red 5 will come through with FireFall and become one of the most popular and most talked about mmorpg’s of the year of its release.
