Should Elite Dangerous move towards a free to play model?

Old Duck

Old Duck
Elite is free to play. It's just not free. There is a difference.

Unless you are on console, in which case it costs a yearly fee to play in Open... 😞

Programmers need to eat too, dude!

All that said, FIX THE BUGS, FRONTIER - I PAID FOR THIS GAME!

EDIT - I do think CQC should be free-to-play.
 

Garbarrage

Garbarrage
Is there any F2P games that don't put players in direct competition. My understanding of that business model is that it relies on egos to drive sales. Without the ever present danger of encountering someone vastly more powerful, why would you ever need to spend money? I don't think a F2P model would work while solo and PG exist.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Always thought it might be a good idea if there was a completely free limited version of ED.

You'd start off with a Sidey and Cr1000 (or whatever it currently is) but, regardless of what you accomplished, you'd only ever have the choice of buying, say, an Eagle, a Cobra, a T6 or a Viper.
That'd probably attract hordes of new players, most of whom would provide useful target-practice, and if a few of them stuck around they'd be able to upgrade their free account to a full account and retain their progress.

Main obstacle would be that, based on patch-day performance, ED's various servers would probably have a meltdown with thousands of new, players trying to log in. :(
 

CLG 6

CLG 6
Stealthie said:
Well, in the scenario I proposed, it'd work as a "shareware" version of the game, to give people a chance to give it a try before purchasing it.
Click to expand...
That would be interesting. I'm all in favor of the devs making a lot of money on this great game. As long as it doesn't crash the servers I say do it.
 

Jpotter

Jpotter
"Free to play" really means "Free to Start" - but you'll need to incrementally spend forever to be relevant. I know people that have dropped HUNDREDS of dollars to play "Free to Play" games.

Free to play is so bad for the consumer, I'd hate to see Elite go that way.
 

Deleted member 182079

D
Are there really that many people who play on dedicated hardware that cost hundreds if not thousands, but are too tight to spend 30 bucks (or whatever Elite and Horizons costs nowadays) on a game?

I find the notion to completely ruin the game just for the benefit of saving the equivalent of a crate of beer or two pretty mind boggling.
 

Muzz UK

Muzz UK
Currently NO.

Though I'd be happy for the base game to move to free 2 play or maybe give a 10 hour pass to people in the future "IF" the game needed it to survive. People shouldn't fear free 2 play models... sure there's some bad games but many free games have healthy communities. A lot of MMO RPGs are free and have friendly consistent and large player bases.

I think the issue is when you've paid life time like myself you want to be rewarded as a long term buyer.
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
When tencent came along, I knew this was where we would end up. Prophetic words by the op I reckon. Arx is indeed the start of this.
 

Killnine

K
Simple answer: NO.

A slightly more complicated answer: a free to play or dirt-cheap entry tier "taster" might be a good idea. Especially if it can contribute to the game or community for us paying customers, too. For example, free to play multi-crew or CQC weekends would be a nice way to attract new players, and an opportunity for established players to try reel in some friends. Or a couple of euros/dollars/pounds "Pilot Federation Cadet License" that would entitle the player to multi-crew, CQC and the tutorials, with the option to deduct the price already paid when upgrading to the "full version".

(Of course, I'm not being a 100% realist here, given how flaky the multi-crew functionality currently is...)
 
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