Ace Combat: Infinity Will Be Free-To-Play

[Gahars]

Ace Combat is a franchise that revolves around intense, high-octane jet fighting - a bit like Top Gun, minus Tom Cruise and all the homoerotic volleyball games, to much disappointment.

Ace Combat is over two decades old, and has made appearances on everything from the GBA to arcade machines. It's a new age, however, and even the most storied franchises run the risk of falling behind the curve. Not to worry, though - this series has an ace up its sleeve.

The most significant change is that the PS3-exclusive game will be free-to-play, a first in the series’ long history. It will be download-only, available on PSN from September 25th.

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This announcement also coincides with the release of a brand new trailer.



It's an interesting experiment to say the least. If the developers can strike a fine balance, this could serve as a great treat for fans and an easy introduction to the franchise for any curious players out there. And hey, beyond that, who knows what they can take this? The possibilities are limitless, stretching on forever. Indeed, one might say they are... extensive.

So, what do you think? Is the genius of this move plane to see, or should the fans just cool their jets?

 

[Zerousen]

Well, since it's free to play, I don't see why I shouldn't try it.

 

[Joe88]

as long as its not pay 2 win

 

[jagerstaffel]

as long as its not pay 2 win

I absolutely hate that free-to-play-to-win My first taste of that, the game's last level was unbeatable unless you shelled out the cash to upgrade upgrade upgrade

 

[T-hug]

I love me some Ace Combat but like every other self respecting gamer I can't stand all these new freemium free play pay to win bs business models.
Will it be the same model as Tekken Revolution? Only get one plane that is eventually useless after a few missions?

I bought the LE of Assault Horizon and thought the game was great I was kind of hoping for a Vita game since the PSP games were so good. Guess I'll give this one a try and see how free it really is.

 

[FAST6191]

I can see this working quite well actually and having played previous entries the whole "equal but different play styles you can pay for" or "random character for free, pay to have the character you want" which are the only ways I have really seen these sorts of things work at present would be a very good fit here.

 

[Hop2089]

Free to Play means Free to skip as in I pass on this.

 

[Snailface]

To me, free-to-play just means stitching the free demo and retail game together. Its 'pay to unlock full game' as usual. I don't see the any important difference.

 

[FAST6191]

To me, free-to-play just means stitching the free demo and retail game together. Its 'pay to unlock full game' as usual. I don't see the any important difference.

Assuming you are not discussing the actual implementation here you must have tried the wrong games. There are quite a few that can happily be played as full games with payment being to avoid a certain measure of grind, to choose an otherwise equally powerful but different character or to choose the character you want rather than the random (can be weighted random) one the game picks that round/day.

 

[BORTZ]

Hopefully it comes with a full fledged map editor.

 

[Blaze163]

What's the catch? Even my life isn't so great that people just randomly give me free Ace Combat games.