I have to say it is too bad CCP decided to cancel their planned ‘cover charge’ for their upcoming free to play First Person Shooter, Dust 514. I probably would have made the same decision, the market proof behind free to play is simply too strong to mess with it, but as an outsider it would have been nice to see if it worked.

Back of the envelop math can make one think well, free to play is awesome but it will never fund a game with the production values of Modern Warfare because the costs are simply too high. The better question is if that is a function of the market size or monetization rates, that is are there not enough people playing core free to play games or are the people playing not paying enough.  In either case, perhaps a studio with a strong brand like CCP could hurry that nexus along by charging a small fee to start playing. 

Of course, when it comes down to it I bet the conversion rates would be so low that it just wouldn’t work in real life, or at least not fast enough to pay for what was probably a hefty investment.  Still, be nice to see if it would have held up
-Posted by Dylan Tredrea on March 5th, 2012

The Future! With Explosions!
If you’re at GDC don’t forget to stop by Yetizen’s pitch competition on Wednesday at 2pm in Ryby Skye to see Coray Seifert unveil our upcoming Facebook action game!

Zynga recently commented during a conference call with investors the strong future they see for social games that appeal to core gamers as the social game audience grows. 

The news certainly indicates an exciting new core gamespace that could quickly be competing with XBLA and PSN titles. 

In what could be a case study for independent development for the next few years or so, HourBlast Games will release “Dueling Blades” for Facebok, iOS and Android in March.  The title is built on the Unity3D game engine and the studio has plans for a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to (supposedly) game through release. 

The Unity3D engine allows the team to rather easily port the Facebook game to iOS and Android later in the year and HourBlast Games says that kickstarter supporters will get some cool in-game benefits for supporting the project.

 The screen captures look interesting enough (who doesn’t want to beat each other with thick wooden sticks now and then?) and one can only hope this becomes another drop in what will soon become a torrent of core titles on Facebook.  

The fundraising method is particularly interesting though one has to wonder how long this type of development will be sustainable.  While Facebook games currently can be bootstrapped, as the technology races forward and the platform expands one can reasonable expect that the technological and creative resources required or a marketable game will only increase.

As a result, it’s a bit of an anxious irony for core gamers like ourselves who see so much promise in Facebook games.   It’s probably only a matter of time until the development costs creep above the point of bootstrapping, crowd funding or even angel investment (typically up to $1,000,000) and we’re back to huge teams and begging publishers for 8 figure budgets. 

In the meantime, we'll be keeping close tabs on Facebook games like Dueling Blades and seeing how they navigate the waters of this huge, but crowded market as an independent developer.