, Darrah was asked for his opinion on free-to-play games and microtransactions. While he doesn't deny how much money they make, even referencing FIFA's Ultimate Team mode, he believes the concept is 'doomed to eventually collapse' based on his own experiences. 'The first mobile game I played that was free-to-play I think I spent $80 on it,' he explains. 'Because I thought 'I'm going to play this forever, it's worth the money.' And then I quit within a couple of months of spending all that money. 'Next game, I was like, 'Okay right, I'm not going to play this very long so I'll spend even less money.' $20, I think I spent, and I quit that even faster. Now I might put a dollar into every tenth game, but I basically don't spend at all.' He goes on to suggest that more and more people will start approaching these sorts of games like h){kind=link}
Despite how lucrative they are for the industry, Mark Darrah of Dragon Age fame thinks free-to-play games and microtransactions can’t last.
It’s no secret that the free-to-play model for video games is extremely popular from a business perspective. Numerous games, from Fortnite to Overwatch 2 advertise themselves as being completely playable without you needing to spend any money on them.
The caveat, of course, is that these games still give their players a reason to spend money, be they cosmetics, playable characters, or progressing through the game faster.
Given how financially lucrative the free-to-play model and microtransactions have become, it seems safe to assume that they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. However, a former producer from BioWare believes that they can’t last and companies will eventually seek something new to replace them.
This comes from Mark Darrah, who was with BioWare for over 20 years and served as executive producer on the Dragon Age series until his sudden departure from the studio in 2020.