how is it false advertising? A demo is technically a free game unless of course you pay for the demo.
When you buy the game it is free. When you play the game, it is free. Im sure if you take time to read the description it will clearly let you know you are only getting what you paid for...in this case the free content.
Yea I would love to see the day someone sues over something free.
ok yes but guess what even paid games are having more and more content that you have to pay for to get. Forza Motor sport, 3 you pay 50 dollars to get the game and then you can't even use all of the cars in the game unless you buy some of them with Microsoft points. Rock band and guitar hero games, again you buy the initial game, but the really good songs you have to buy. Fallout 3, good game by itself, but there are a whole bunch of pay to download parts that are not included. Mafia 3 this is one of the crown jewels for this they release the game and then a week later they release a paid download-able content aspect that actually should have been included in the original game.
Paid content in games that you either paid for to begin with or started out free is the unfortunate future of video games. The developers just just put out a half assed game and then make it better with paid download-able content. To be honest when you buy the game to begin with it makes me mad, when the game is free at first I am fine with it.
I do some apps mostly on facebook and the buying content is defiantly becoming a big deal. heck most of the spps offer cards for your stuff in the app at wal-mart.
I also play a lot of online games and there are a good deal of them that instead of the $15 per month free they are free but, to get further in the game or to get better gear you have to pay for it and in cases like Combat Arms the stuff expires and you have to keep repurchasing it. I did the math and it works out to way more then the $15 per month fee. on average if you want to stay up to date it is going to cost you $30 per week that is $120 per month folks.
A lot of the mmo community is wanting this game or that game free to play but they are not thinking about these other games that are technically free but to go further then basics cost a lot. Games like Lord Of The Rings Online went free but,the higher dungeons you have to pay to play and you can only play them for a limited time. It is all about the money folks.
Haven't these people heard of game demos, madden has been doing that for years on consoles, and the mobile market will fall into the same trends that get people to buy, this is common sense and not even news
Madden NFL Free is a demo. It probably says in the information of the app that all it is is a single game with no added feature. Maybe the iOS users are not used to this, but as an android user i'd say about 95% of paid games have a lite/free/demo version that says right in it that you don't get all the features of the game.
So what is that? A demo. theres nothing wrong with that because it gives you a chance to test out the game.
The Madden NFL demo that comes out for the consoles allows just a single game as well, a copy of the previous super bowl and thats all you can do. But the entire point is for you to play it just enough that you decide whether or not you want to buy the game.
So madden is not one of the freemium games that your talking about, it's nothing more than a demo that lets you purchase the full game in the demo, which is possible on mobile platforms. if EA could do it with the 360/PS3 they would to.
i don't see the big deal. If people want to spend their money on games like Farmville or Mafia Wars then its their choice. Same goes with MMORPGS.
In the case of the Madden game, its clearly a demo. Usually if people take time to read the descriptions it will notify you that you aren't getting the full game. Nothing wrong with testing a new car before buying it.
As for games like Red Dead, Grand Theft Auto or Fallout 3....those are usually expansion packs that add a whole new element to a game. I would rather have the ability to add new content and pay fraction of the price then to pay full price for the same game with the new content. I mean can you imagine the nightmare when companies such as EA Sports starts making people pay full price for a new Madden every year that just includes an updated roster and slight improvements?....o wait that already does happen.
I'm like all it sounds great but there is lines not seen and what we are paying is for the viruses, like all with comp there are scammers on every corner saying pick me pick me. Nothing is free not even the free is free all scammers and unless a person says no it will be a continues roll of scammers so check it and make sure the fine lines you read are really real. They are just idiots and unless we look and not leap then it will continue, Lets just get them all by putting our comp board down and teach them were not out to be a foul but were not dumb either.Its a sham but comp have turned into a profit and the losers are us.
Wow - talk about FUD. This article seemingly only used Madden to get more attention.
Like almost any FREE game on the Apple App Store, Madden is a single level demo. Apple frowns on demo versions, and prefers to call demos "lite" and "free" versions of the game. Nothing wrong with that at all. Plus, the simple fact is that even if you do choose to pay, the cost is minimal (you buy the app permanently for a one time charge).
Contrast that with the Smurfs example the author noted. That example I agree with completely. That game is insidious and looks like it can only be played well by continually to investing real money to purchase smurf berries. Good example of a "freemium" game.
Just wish the author had shown a bit more familiarity with the concept of a demo (they exist the same way on PS3 and Xbox) in regard to the Madden example.
Where was everybody in the '90s? They're called shareware--except now the whole concept of illegal software distribution has been undermined by centralized online distribution through app stores. Hence, the whole concept of "share"ware is now antiquated.
Yes, shareware games sucked in the '90s, too, just like freemium games suck now, but at least you get to try the game out to see if it's even got a chance at being worth the $5-$20 that you're about to pay.
At some point somebody has to work to make the games that everyone else is playing...
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TRON
Sounds like to me the greedy game companies are blurring the line between the concepts of Free and Demo Games
Sorry that maiden explained is not a free game it’s a demo but marketing it as a free game is pretty much FALSE advertising
I would expect a few lawsuits in the near future to make sure game companies label and advertise correctly
A demo is a demo a free game is a free game
Calling A DEMO a FREE GAME is bad MOVE