World of Tanks dev drops "pay-to-win" purchases and hopes the rest of the industry will follow suit
"We don't want to nickel and dime our players."
Wargaming, developer of World of Tanks, has said it will remove all "pay-to-win" purchase options from its games.
The policy applies to any in-game item that could be viewed as advantageous in battle, and will continue in Wargaming's upcoming sister titles World of Warplanes and World of Warships.
Instead, the company will operate a "free-to-win" monetisation strategy, where the only in-game items you can pay for using real world cash are personalisation options and premium vehicles, Wargaming told Gamasutra. (Like a tank made out of gold?)
"We strongly believe that you can't provide a truly triple-A free-to-play experience without absolutely making sure all combat options are free of charge to all players," the company's Andrei Yarantsau explained.
"We don't want to nickel and dime our players - we want to deliver gaming experiences and services that are based on the fair treatment of our players, whether they spend money in-game or not."
Wargaming hopes that other game companies will follow suit, leading to a new and less-greedy generation of free-to-play games.
"This isn't just about the game economics of World of Tanks," Yarantsau continued. "We aim to completely overhaul the free-to-play concept that exists as a whole in the gaming community by getting rid of the idea of 'pay-to-win', ultimately helping lead what we consider the roll-out of 'version 2.0' of free-to-play gaming."
Pay-to-win is not sustainable for gamers or developers, Yarantsau concluded.
"It results in huge payments from a small number of users (the so-called 'whales')," Yarantsau said. "Top-payers end up never losing, while those who pay less or don't pay grow dissatisfied with the game. Eventually, many leave entirely and the overall player base shrinks."