Nintendo Won’t Even Consider Free To Play Model

Nintendo Won’t Even Consider Free To Play Model

Some perceive it as the future dominant model for gaming, but Nintendo doesn't seem to share that point of view as it announced that it has absolutely no intention to explore the free-to-play model.

"Nintendo is not interested," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told The Wall Street Journal. "We have no intention to provide a property to any other platforms, or making them available in a mode that does not require consumers to pay at all."

"Nintendo is a company, which is trying to maintain the overall value of video games," he explained. "If we were simply going to say OK, the only the way we could sell more products is by decreasing the price, then there wouldn't be a bright future and the entire industry will fold."

"When we look at the entire system of freemium, it's not always that everyone is happy with the offers," the Nintendo president claimed.

Satoru then acknowledge that "there are great examples of advertising and doing the micro transactions, and several companies who have come up with that kind of system… But on the other hand, if you ask me, is this a system that can be sustained for the long time? I don't know the answer. And, my point is that I'm not willing to go that direction, as well."