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The original 'Crazy Taxi' is free to play on your smartphone
If you've ever wanted to understand the fuss over Crazy Taxi but didn't want to spend money on a piece of gaming history, you now have your chance. Sega has made it free to play both the Android and iOS versions of the original title, giving you a solid excuse to check out its classic mix of open-world racing and over-the-top style. That includes the original punk rock soundtrack, too. However, there's one big catch: ads.
Latest 'Futurama' mobile game is part social sim, part retro action
I have something important to tell you: There's video proof of the latest Futurama game in development. Executive producer and series creator Matt Groening is involved, as is executive producer David X. Cohen. Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow is "coming soon" to mobile platforms including Android and iOS. "[It] will blend simulation, combat, galactic exploration, and choose-your-own-adventure mechanics together to bring the escapades of the Planet Express crew to life," according to a press release. That's a tall order for a mobile game.
Play 'The Elder Scrolls Online' for free this week
Bethesda is trying to boost The Elder Scrolls Online's player base less than two months before the launch of its big Morrowind expansion. Starting tomorrow at 10 am EST, anyone can download and play the game on PC, Xbox One or PlayStation 4 for free for an entire week.
You won't have to pay to play 'Quake Champions'
The upcoming Quake Champions will be free-to-play. Or not. It depends on how you want to approach it. "At its core, it's a free-to-play game with the option to buy the Champion Pack and just get in and play with all the Champions," developer Bethesda Softworks' creative director Tim Willits recently told Polygon. The Champion Pack is basically the full-priced version of the game, giving access to everything you'd expect from a retail title right out of the gate. But, if games like League of Legends and Dota 2 have taught us anything, it's that dropping $60 up-front is a huge barrier to entry for people around the world.
Classic racing series 'GTR' will return in 2018
It's taken more than a decade, but GTR 2, the game rightly lauded as one of the best racing sims ever, is getting a sequel. The game's existence was announced via the Race Department forums (spotted by Eurogamer), and will launch next year for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While GTR 2 shot for accurate simulation, though, developer SimBin Studios UK is shooting for a broader audience with GTR 3. Chris Speed, the CEO of SimBin's parent company Sector3, said the game will be a "proper simulation" but "needs to appeal to both sides" to succeed on consoles. Speed pointed to recent F1 games as an example of a way to appeal to the "hardcore racer" and the "casual gamer."
'Dawn of Titans' shrinks an epic strategy game onto your phone
This year alone, 1.4 billion smartphones will be sold, giving more people access to gaming devices than ever before. But with more than 1,000 new apps flooding the App Store every day, it's increasingly difficult for new titles to make an impact. Every so often, a game like Pokémon Go comes along, proving that if you have the right "hook," you can find a massive audience. NaturalMotion believes technology is its hook. The British gaming studio started life creating animation engines, with its software used for everything from The Lord of the Rings movies to Grand Theft Auto V. It then packed that tech into mobile games like Clumsy Ninja that, thanks to their visual edge, quickly topped the App Store. That success led to the studio being bought for $527 million by casual-gaming giant Zynga. It's been nearly three years since the acquisition, though, and the pressure is on for NaturalMotion to deliver a fresh hit.
'Evolve' is dying after its free-to-play transition failed
Evolve managed to bump its online player count from 300 to a million by going free-to-play, but developer Turtle Rock says it can no longer support the shooter. "We were hungry for more but unfortunately today is the last day that Turtle Rock Studios can work on Evolve," studio Co-Founder Chris Ashton wrote. In a statement, publisher 2K Games said that it will take over day-to-day operation and that the servers will stay online "for the foreseeable future." There will be no more updates, however.
'Star Trek Online' launches for free on consoles
Star Trek Online arrived on PC in the busy MMORPG scene in February 2010, just as the sun started to set on the genre. But the game followed industry trends to keep its playerbase, relaunching in January 2012 with a free-to-play tier and releasing semi-annual "season" expansions of new content at no cost. Today, it's landing on PS4 and Xbox One, following other FTP titles in the move to consoles.
Free-to-play is coming to the space MMO 'EVE Online'
After over a decade with a straight subscription model, the massively multiplayer space RPG EVE: Online is adding a free-to-play tier. While paid accounts will still exist for new and old players alike, the new free accounts will give gamers basic access to the vast EVE universe, "New Eden." It's been surprising how long EVE developer CCP has held out on free-to-play. New Eden may have been home to some of the most famous conflicts in video game history, but that hasn't stopped subscribers leaving in droves. Introduced in 2003, the game peaked with 500,000 subscribers in 2013 (the last time CCP gave official figures). From comparing activity logs and historical player figures, the current subscriber count is likely less than half of that peak.
Ubisoft is shutting down the free-to-play 'Ghost Recon'
Free-to-play games based on popular franchises were a huge trend for awhile. But, as Microsoft showed us this week by canceling Halo Online for Russia, there are no guarantees for success. Ubisoft is following suit and shutting down Ghost Recon Phantoms, formerly known as Ghost Recon Online. As Gamasutra writes, this was the publisher's maiden voyage into the market when it launched back in 2011.
'Evolve' continues its rebirth with new co-op mode
The asymmetric shooter Evolve is experiencing a renaissance. Reacting to dwindling player number, developer Turtle Rock made Evolve free to play, rebalanced the gameplay and promised more additions down the line. The changes, at least so far, have been a success, and now the developer is introducing a new mode that scraps the core 4-vs-1 dynamic in favor of a more traditional co-op experience. Called "The Deepest Dark," the mode sits alongside the other play options, rather than replacing them.
One month after going free, 'Evolve' averages 15,000 players
Pick a random moment in June and you'd likely find about 100 people playing Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve on Steam. That's not a lot of players in general, but this number is especially sad for a game billed as an online multiplayer extravaganza. One and a half years after launch, it looked like Evolve was dying. And then, in July, Evolve's active player base shot up to an average of 15,400 at any given time on Steam, according to current lead designer Brandon Yanez. This didn't happen by accident: Developers at Turtle Rock knew they had to take drastic action to save Evolve and so, on July 7th, they did. They made the game free on PC.
'Quantum Break' studio's next project isn't what you expect
Historically, Remedy Entertainment has only worked on one project at a time, releasing only a handful of games since 2001's Max Payne. The company recently announced it was moving away from that fan-frustrating workflow and was becoming a studio that has more than one iron in the fire at a given moment. Now, a few months after the fantastic Quantum Break, we know what one of the team's next projects is: creating a campaign for the next installment of free-to-play shooter CrossFire, the aptly named CrossFire 2.
'Evolve' added over a million players by going free-to-play
It looks like that last ditch effort to save Evolve actually worked. In under a week, developer Turtle Rock Studios says that its monstrous 4-versus-1 multiplayer game has picked up over a million new players on PC. Regardless of how many will actually stick around, that's a much higher number of players than the game saw just a few weeks ago. Peak concurrent users in June totaled 234, according to Game Informer.
'Evolve' now free-to-play as creators try to save the game
Evolve got a lot of things right. But the 2015 4-vs-1 first-person shooter also got a few things wrong. It had a tremendous amount of buzz thanks to the aforementioned asymmetric multiplayer aspect, but a lack of depth -- and the restrictions that asymmetry brings -- led to mixed reviews and middling sales. Following what developer Turtle Rock Studios calls a "DLC shit-storm," its popularity dropped further, and it soon had an average player count of less than 500. 18 months after launch, Evolve's developers are making some major changes to try and rescue the game, the biggest of which is making it free-to-play on PC.
Play a free, futuristic 'Cops and Robbers' on your Xbox One
Rumors are swirling that we could see more of the new Crackdown in just over a week's time at E3, but until Microsoft's media briefing you'll just have to make due with All Points Bulletin: Reloaded. The free-to-play online game of futuristic cops and robbers recently launched on Xbox One after a lengthy delay, and if you log in within the first month (or before its initial patch, whichever comes first), there are a few bonuses for you. In addition to weapon skins and a placard for your avatar if you play for 10 hours, there's a special weapon (the Fireworks Flare Launcher) and vehicle (Mikro JC14 "New-Cross") in store for everyone, regardless of play-time.
Square Enix Montreal gets what makes mobile games great
Apple recently named Lara Croft Go its game of the year, and deservedly so. But the back-to-basics 2D puzzler wasn't developer Square Enix Montreal's first stab at mobile gaming. The studio was initially formed to work on a now-cancelled Hitman project for consoles and then transitioned to making premium smartphone and tablet games.Since releasing Hitman Go in 2014 the team has been quietly kicking a lot of ass in the space, launching the excellent Hitman Sniper and Lara Croft Go within roughly two months of each other. It's this type of repeat success that's afforded lead programmer Antoine Routon and his mobile-exclusive team at Square Enix Montreal the freedom to tinker with publisher Square Enix's biggest properties in fresh ways."We have a lot of creative freedom we acquired by delivering good games," he says. "What's the opposite of street cred? Exec cred?" he asks, laughing.
'Pro Evolution Soccer' gets a free-to-play version this December
For years, FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer have been fighting for the hearts of football fans. EA has always had the money, with authentic strips and team names, but PES players will argue that Konami's gameplay makes it a technically superior franchise. If you're currently sat in the FIFA camp, or have been avoiding football games altogether, Konami hopes to win you back with a free-to-play version of PES 2016. Details are scarce, but Polygon reports that it'll be available from December 8th on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, with an Exhibition Mode featuring seven professional teams. Like the yearly FIFA demos, these include some pretty all-star squads -- you can expect the likes of Bayern Munich, Juventus and AS Roma to be available from the outset. You'll also get access to MyClub, which is a mode where you can build and manage your own custom team. Even if you play it just a handful of times over the Christmas break, it's free, so really what's there to lose?
'Titanfall' is going mobile
Titanfall, the mech-based multiplayer shooter from the creators of Call of Duty, will land on iOS and Android in some form in 2016. Titanfall studio Respawn Entertainment has partnered with free-to-play publisher Nexon and mobile developer Particle City in a multi-year, multi-game deal. There are no details about the mechanics or style of the coming Titanfall mobile games, but considering Nexon's involvement, it's a good bet that they'll be free with in-app payments. "Nexon's unrivaled publishing network and free-to-play expertise will allow Titanfall to reach new global audiences. And with Particle City, we are closely collaborating to create all-new standalone games with original gameplay experiences that expand the Titanfall universe to players everywhere," Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella says in a press release.
A 'Quake Live' Steam update raises the game's price from $0 to $10
Quake Live, a highly competitive first-person shooter from Doom studio id Software, has been free since it launched in 2010. Rather, it had been free. On Wednesday, long-time players booted up the game to find it now costs $10 on Steam and no longer offers subscription options for serious fans. The move is part of Quake Live's transition to Steamworks, which allows players to use their Steam display names in-game, receive Steam stats and achievements, and download new content through the Steam Workshop. "By retiring our services and subscription service, all players now have the same benefits and features in-game," the Quake Live team says. The move also erases all previous game data, which, for some players, is five years' worth of clan-building and killing. Many players were surprised (and some were enraged) by today's news.
