Back in 2009, an experimental free-to-play Battlefield predicted our grim live service present: ‘It will need to be the most popular Battlefield game of all time to be profitable’
It cannot be overstated how alien a concept “free-to-play” was just a few hardware generations ago. Long before we’d settled on a label for them, the only notable free-to-play games were browser-based MMOs, early MOBAs based on mods, and Korean games that had few players in the West. Free-to-play was niche in these parts, but…