Free-to-play is the best business model both for development studios and gamers. That’s according to Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris, who has recently seen his studio release Tribes: Ascend.

As reported by The Train2Game Blog, the free-to-play shooter with an old school feel has reached over 800,000 users in the weeks since it launched.

“It’s really our belief that for an online multiplayer game, particularly, free-to-play is the best model for gamers and for studios,” Harris told Gamasutra.

” We really saw the potential in free-to-play, for gamers and for studios. With Tribes: Ascend, we really wanted to do a AAA, free-to-play game that’s the level of production, polish and gameplay that we were shooting for. Fortunately, reviews have been good.” he continued, adding that despite the free-to-play model, Hi-Rez has ensured Tribes: Ascend isn’t “pay-to-win”

“Our philosophy is to focus first on making a fun an engaging game, second, by making it free you create a large audience to play the game.” said Harris.

“And third, you implement the store so that it doesn’t give any gameplay advantage to a paying player, but it gives a time advantage or a prestige advantage — the latter in the form of cosmetic skins.” the Hi-Rez COO added.

Earlier this year, Brawl Busters developer Rock Hippo told The Train2Game Blog that the advantage of free-to-play is it allows them to reach a much larger audience.

There’s more about free-to-play and its impact on the games industry, here on The Train2Game Blog.

Do you agree with the statement that free-to-play is the best model for gamers and studios?

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