It just struck me, it seems that what ever game I look at is turning to F2P. Is the FPS gaming world changing faster than we realise? One minute we were moaning about a sudden lack of dedicated servers and other features when suddenly it seems we're invaded slowly but surely with free2play games with microtransactions. F2P has been a model used in MMO's for some time now, but FPS? We now have, officially, MMOFPS...

We have the Battlefield versions; Heroes & Play4Free but there was also Alliance of Valiant Arms.

Team Fortress 2 just went that way and it seems a lot of games coming out this year and next are planning to use the same business model. In this very forum, Tribes: Ascend will be F2P. Blacklight: Tango Down failed (120k copies sold) but they are working on a sequel that will be F2P. As I started to look around for this trend, I found F.E.A.R. Combat, Combat Arms, War Rock, Project Blackout, FireFall, UberStrike, BlackShot, and there are many, many more.

I'm not casting judgement in any way. They may be good or they may be dowright digital drivel, but they are here and they are being played in droves!

What are we seeing? A blip or a major trend, shifting focus away from disc or digital sales to microtransactions on a MMO scale?

This is very likely to be the case.
By now companies have realised that subscription based games and F2P games are cash-cows.

I don't see them replace regular games, but I see large companies releasing 1-2 F2P games to provide a steady stream of revenue in addition to their regular games.

Yep. As someone who has played F2P games like LOL most people who get into the game end up spending allot more than what the game would retail for. I stopped playing LOL because it was just to easy to waste money on new champions. Sigh. They should really be called Free 2 pay games. I don't know how they would work with FPS games but from what I've played of BF F2P it seems like your paying to win. It's a better model though than a subscription and to be honest free games have some pretty impressive player base numbers that they wouldn't have if they weren't "free". It's probably a very solid tactic for competing with AAA games like COD and BF.

as much as I dislike the F2P model, at least they update their games and don't have a new skin on the game each year.

I read somewhere that WOW maybe touching the waters of F2P model. Not sure if there is any truth in this.

So it's definately not a blip but rather a slow-pace gathering storm heading our way and we have no shelters or blueprints for any shelters to take refuge before this onslaught...

Are the graphics using this model ehrm...utter shaite or are there any decent ones out there? BF's venture is not too bad but then you lag like...well you know what and "trim" the eye candy down to where it looks like the first BF or even DOOM. Anything to not lag and have a decent chance at a k/d to write home about...innit?

Innit though I have yet to see a good looking F2P game, that will hold them back alot

Just found this: