Yes, Triad Wars is free to play, but is it pay to win?
Plus, will we ever see a true sequel to Sleeping Dogs?
Triad Wars, the next game in the Sleeping Dogs universe, is indeed free to play. But is it pay to win?
In a Reddit AMA conducted last night, developer United Front Games answered questions about the PC-exclusive online game's business mode, although representatives from the studio were unable to go into detail.
"Our guiding principle is that gamers should be having fun, first and foremost," producer Justin Bullard said.
"We live and die by that at UFG. We aren't interested in nickel and diming people, but instead want to build a game that players will keep coming back to, because they love it.
"How we monetise is something we'll be testing and tuning based on what we learn in our beta tests. Our guiding principle is that you shouldn't ever have to pay in order to enjoy the game."
Then, in response to another question about F2P, Bullard responded:
"We think this model fits Triad Wars perfectly. It wouldn't fit every game we make here at UFG, but Triad Wars offers a great mix of open world action, RPG mechanics and strategic gameplay that line up well with the Free to Play model.
"No more details to share right now, but we understand where you are coming from."
He added: "What we decided to build is a live game. We are business model agnostic, so once we'd decided on building an ongoing service, we wanted to find a model that we could make successful with this type of game.
"Free to Play allows us to get the game to as many players as possible with the lowest possible barrier to entry. That suits our goal of exposing a massive number of gamers to the Sleeping Dogs universe."
Meanwhile, there seems to be some confusion over what, exactly, Triad Wars is. We know it's a PC online game in which you play a Hong Kong crime boss, and that there are elements of the combat from Sleeping Dogs mixed with a empire building strategy layer, but beyond that, it's a bit fuzzy.
"You'll be playing against real players online asynchronously," design director Steve Ferreira explained.
"There's a strong strategy and RPG component but we think of this as an action strategy game. Definitely not an RTS.
"Everyone plays on one server but since it's asynchronous you'll be competing against a smaller set of players at any one time."
Then: "Triad Wars is about competing against a smaller set of players in an asynchronous world. We think of it more of an action/strategy/RPG."
Triad Wars is a PC exclusive for now, but UFG suggested it may one day come to console.
But what of Sleeping Dogs? Many fans of the game were disappointed to learn that UFG was working on Triad Wars and not Sleeping Dogs 2.
"Right now we are totally focused on making Triad Wars as awesome as it could be - but would love to continue making games in the Sleeping Dogs universe," Bullard said, without giving away too much.
But will we ever see a true sequel to Sleeping Dogs?
"Nothing to share on that right now, but we will take every opportunity to explore this universe," Bullard said.
