Peter Molyneux sees moral quandary with current freemium game model

As the mobile gaming market continues to expand, free-to-play games are rapidly becoming less free-to-play. The current freemium model encourages players to try a game, but rarely delivers a satisfying game experience without spending money.

At least, that’s the problem as Peter Molyneux sees it and he finds many freemium games to be '…more like demos with monetisation stuck on the end of them a lot of the time.'

The fix, as he proposes in a talk given at BAFTA, is to build in a proper monetisation strategy from the beginning of a game's design period.

"If proper monetisation is built in from the ground up - and not designed [by] some producer or some financially driven person - then I think amazing things can happen", the veteran designer said.

He added, "We, as human beings, love hobbies, we have different hobbies throughout our lives, and we love spending money on our hobbies".

"Why can't we have that thought about a computer game experience? So that people would want to invest money, not just feel compelled, or forced".

Molyneux's team's first game, Curiosity, involves tapping away at a cube in order to reveal a 'surprise' to the player that first reaches the end.

Players are given a standard chisel for free, and can buy a better chisel for 59p. Of most interest is that there is also a 'diamond' chisel, that costs a mind-bending £50,000 and is limited, again, to just the one person.

"In a way it's testing the morality of monetisation. A lot of the time games monetise against cheating, if you're playing in multiplayer. And there is the whole moral issue about getting people addicted and asking for money from them. There are very few checks in place."

"I know what's in the middle of the cube. And whoever breaks in there, I promise you this, it is the most amazing thing"