Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed that the percentage of people who pay in free-to-play games is roughly the same as those who buy boxed games.
So high are the rates of piracy (5-7%), Ubisoft is actively looking to the F2P model as an important way of making money from the PC market going forward, especially in territories badly affected by piracy.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online is one of Ubisoft's latest titles to take advantage of this model.
"We want to develop the PC market quite a lot and F2P is really the way to do it," said Guillemot in an interview with GamesIndustry International. "The advantage of F2P is that we can get revenue from countries where we couldn't previously - places where our products were played but not bought. Now with F2P we gain revenue, which helps brands last longer.
Now with F2P we gain revenue, which helps brands last longer.
"It's a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it's only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content."
Ubisoft recently announced a range of F2P titles at Gamescom, including Anno Online, The Settlers Online, Silent Hunter Online, and Heroes of Might Heroes Online.
Is F2P really the future of PC gaming? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.
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