Sims 4 to Become Free-to-Play – Why is the Industry Committed to this Model? 

According to a recent announcement from EA, the creators of hit games like FIFA 22, Apex Legends,
Star Wars Battlefront, and Medal of Honor, their hit simulation game The Sims 4 will soon be available for free across all platforms, some of which include Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh operating systems (macOS).

The Free-to-Play (F2P) model is becoming more popular with many of today’s major game
development studios. But why is the gaming industry committed to this model? Find out more right
here.

What is the Free-to-Play model?

The F2P (Free-to-Play) model in video gaming is basically a business strategy that enables people to play games for free. This begs the question, how do companies make money when the games are free to play? The answer is simple. Instead of making money via initial sales of the games or from ongoing subscription fees, the companies that produce today’s F2P games make money out of what are commonly referred to as in-game purchasables. In other words, players can buy a variety of items while they’re playing.

Some of the items that players can purchase are things like weapons upgrades, skins/costumes/characters, special abilities/moves, expansion packs, in-game currency, loot boxes,
and various other special items. The exact types of items you can purchase will vary from one game to the next. 

With the F2P model, companies can keep on making money via the sale of these in-play purchasables, instead of from a one-off purchase fee or subscription fee for the game. This is why we
see so many companies getting more creative with the types of things players can buy while they’re playing. The game development studios also make vast sums of money from in-game advertising. The bigger the game, the more revenue from advertising it can generate. In other words, the F2P model is a win-win situation for EA and other companies, and it looks as though free to play games are here to stay!

More companies that benefit from the F2P model

Some of the other most notable game development studios that also benefit from the Free-to-Play model include:

• Microsoft
• Activision Blizzard
• Nintendo
• Ubisoft
• Square Enix
• Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Sega
• Take-Two Interactive
• Bethesda Software
• Valve
• Riot Games
• Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
• Tencent Games

What are the benefits of the Free-to-Play model?

The players and the game publishers both benefit from the Free-to-Play model. First of all, players get to play the games for free. Without this model, they might not be able to afford to pay for the game outright or pay for a monthly/annual video game subscription.

The F2P model enables people to play the latest games and never miss out on a title ever again. They are given the option to buy in-play items if they want to.

They are not forced into buying purchasables (aka microtransactions).

Top free-to-play game categories to keep an eye out for in 2022

There are multiple free-to-play game categories to keep an eye out for in 2022. For example, you can now find F2P casual games, MMORPG games, shooting games, war games, adventure games, survival games, match 3 games, and action games. You can also find a wide range of F2P MMO games,
multiplayer games, PvP games, RPG games, strategy games, Solitaire games, puzzle games, robot games, castle games, and medieval games, to name just a few popular categories.

Players from around the world can find hundreds of F2P games, and they can be enjoyed across multiple platforms. Some games can be downloaded onto certain devices, and others can be played instantly in your web browser. You can enjoy playing these games from a smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop device, and from most other gaming devices, such as the Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X, and Playstation.

It looks as though more games will become F2P games rather than subscription-based games or games that you can purchase outright. In addition to The Sims 4, one of the other famous free-to-play video games out there today is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.  This famous title is a first-person shooter/adventure that was originally released in 2019. It was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, and it’s just one of a handful of Call of Duty games that you can now enjoy playing for free across multiple platforms.