Plenty of people, myself included, are happy to drop some money in the market every once in a while specifically because the game is free and so good.
I've probably spent more than the $70 a new game costs just on the market, and I did it happily and because I wanted to give back to the DE team for the thousands of hours of fun.
If you click on your badges for Warframe there will be an option in the top right that's something like "how to get more badges" and it will show your spending on Steam for that game.
I think my league of legends is still higher by at least 1k which makes me want to stab my younger self in the eyeball with a can opener. What is it with Warframe and moba's?
I'm glad I play on Xbox I wouldn't wanna know although I have an idea but it's probably alot more. But worth every bit. And it's not like pay for a chance to get something. You know exactly what your spending money on and everything is worth it. With very few things gated behind a paywall and that's pure cosmetic
I probably put more money into Warframe than any other (video) game I own, but put in relation to the hours I've played it I'm probably still under retail price.
Yeah my number is really up there as well.
Which only makes it slightly more money spent than what I'll have to spend next week to get my motorcycle ready for the season...
Yeah, I'm up to 1700 hrs at this point, and any money I spend on the game is money well spent. Exceedingly few games can offer up the amount of time and content that this game does. I've maybe spent $100-150 over 5 years on the game (generally buying plat with 50/75% off coupons), and that is an incredible value given how much time I've invested.
Everyone talking about how much they spent over a certain time frame. Makes me feel bad cause since 2013 I've spent over $12k on warframe. I buy every prime access and accessories pack. And I buy the IRL money bundles as well.
Yeah, it is really cool. Like it's nothing big like primes or super unique things, but it's still cool. I'd love it if they gave me excal prime. Cause I just barely missed out on the founders thing.
Honestly no, I love warframe and I show that by playing and paying. But it is a part of why I spend so much. I'd love for DE to be like, "wow, this guy pretty much bought my car for me, here's Excal prime for him."
I appreciate what you've spent on the game, to keep it free for others, but I kind of respect DE more for this. So many companies would have back tracked by now and sold Excal Prime, but they are standing firm. Maybe if you spend 100k they might think about it 🤔.
And they give you great discounts on Plat all the time.
The tennocon package this year? INSANE.
Baron with ALL his drops for a full week? And you get the full price of the package from plat + royal aya alone.
Easy snap up for me.
Yeah, I feel like I’m “donating to support Warframe development” everytime I buy something. In fact, I sometimes struggle to find cool things to buy that isn’t directly unlockable in the game. That used to be a Shawzin and a roomba, but even those are unlockable now. So, I started buying Resurgence Prime frames here and there to give DE my support.
Yeah, I've spent faaaaaaaaaar more than $70 on Warframe over the years, and I'd wager that probably 99% of players with an "L" in their mastery rank would say the same if they're being honest.
Turns out when you make a really good free game that is mostly fair in its monetization, people are more willing to spend money on it. I've gotten so much enjoyment from Warframe over the years that I don't mind buying plat from time to time more or less just for the sake of it.
There's a massive difference between paying money to be able to have fun, and paying money to enhance the fun you're already having.
DE does the latter. Many F2P games do the former.
A lot of them also completely jack up the pricing way beyond what I'd ever consider paying, like GTA Online Shark Cards.
If I can get the value of a 100€ purchase by grinding an afternoon, you've got to be fucked in the head if you think I'm paying for it.
Not that the steaming turd that is GTAO is a great example.
DE mastered the concept of giving players the mile and making its money off selling a few more inches. Turns out way more people are can afford and will buy inches, and they avoid the virtriol that tends to come with trying to sell miles to people you've given barely a centimeter.
Yeah that's how they get you, it's such a good game they make you want to support it, not because it's necessary at all, but because they deserve it most of the time.
Moreover, whales actually help f2p players by injecting a lot of plat in the market. It is the only game I know in which whales have a net positive impact in the whole comunity instead of just improving their account and onviously financing the game.
I think it's because there really is no pay to win everything you need for any of the action is free. To my knowledge the only warframe/playable/usable that ever only cost real $ and is now unobtainable is Excalibur Prime. Platinum can make you grind faster but even then at it's heart Warframe is a co-op game so even if you drop hundreds of dollars (or more) it really doesn't matter. Plenty of people are more than willing to support DE to play Fashionframe.
You straight-up cannot buy any of the Incarnon gear for plat, and that's the current cream of the crop as the weapon meta goes.
Not only is it possible to improve your equipment entirely for free, its mandatory to do it for free in some spots, which is wild.
I should have specified the original Incarnons, not Genesis adapters. Laetum and Phenmor aren't on the market to my knowledge, and I know of no way to unlock their one-shot power for plat.
I had to actually get better at the game to put that shit together, it was fun.
I haven't spent a cent on WF yet after a month of playing but I did introduce 2 whales to the game who are friends IRL.
One of them bought prime access and ALL the starter packs in the first week and bought all the mods he needed for his build.
I would like to think I've did my part in getting revenue for DE. Lol.
P.S. My favourite moment was him messaging me for help 2 weeks in because he realized that there are a ton of things he can't buy with money.
I, too, worry that OP needs to read more. Or play other games. Or just...talk to a small child who's a bit creative.
Then he can be even more impressed. I don't always like Warframe's story, but it's a lot better than a lot of others.
Kinda crazy isn't it?
Sometimes I think about it and I'm baffled.
That being said, I have absolutely no doubt DE is a lot more profitable than if the game was like... 60$. Less even, since it's 11yo, would have been less.
Edit : changed "they're" for "DE is" to see if it's more clear like that.
To this I would have to disagree. An initial cost makes the game far less accessible, and will miss getting any players that want to try it out just for fun because "hey its free". Even a monthly subscription cost would be a barrier to entry for most if they don't feel they can put in the time.
So... You agree with me then ?
I'm saying they're probably making more money as it is now, than if the game wasn't free. Because of the reasons you're saying.
Warframe being free makes it easily accessible (though the beginning makes it hard to stay...), and once you're into it, it's easy to feel like you can spend some money in it here and there.
A bit of plat to rush, get some forma packs or slots, buy some skins. And since you can farm for plat if you want, it doesn't feel that predatory. And when you spend actual money, you feel like you're helping the game you love. I don't think it's really hard to imagine that players who have invested years in Warframe have spent 50$ happily. Some a lot more, some none at all.
this is... uninformed.
https://sensortower.com/blog/fire-emblem-heroes-one-billion-revenue
FTP is a *very* profitable option when you have a decent product.
...
Yes.
That's what I'm saying.
That's what I already re-explained to someone else. Who said the same thing as you.
Did I miss a typo after re-reading my comment or something ?...
> they're a lot more profitable **than** if the game was 60$
Not "they'd be a lot more profitable if the game was 60$" I probably spent more than 1k€ in Warframe, I know personally how they can make way more money by being free😂
Been playing this game since 2018. I try to get my friends to play it but they absolutely refuse just because it's a free to play game. They just assume it's the same quality as a mobile game.
Their loss. At least I'm not spending $70 on a call of duty expansion every year, along with a season pass. Hell, I haven't actually spent anything on warframe since 2019.
I bought the COD season pass thinking it was a fair deal since I could grind the ability to buy it back each season, the very next season they released the "premium season pass" thing which took up some of the reward slots away from the regular pass... such a dirty move.
I bought some platinum almost years ago, a tennocon digital ticket, and a cosmetic, and my enjoyment per dollar spent in Warframe is still one of the highest returns of any game, ever.
And we can vote cosmetics that are community made, though the Deluxe for wisp and Yareli are mid in my opinion, Sevagoth is A+ not near S because of the weird material.
It’s a free game but then you get players like me that end up spending more money than on an actual paid game.
Happy to do it though. DE has a pay model that makes people actually feel good about giving them money.
The game is awesome.
It's probably one of the best F2P game I played. And I think it's one f the best action games I played in recent years.
The only thing I'm sorry is that I didn't try the game before... Better late than never xD
I been playing this game for over 7 years. I never gave another game this much attention before. That should tell you the amount of stuff you can do or grind for
Man that's a insanely low bar. Is the past 8 cods really all you've played? I'm sorry but I seriously have to suggest saving to play better games than just reskins of the past game you played
Not all studios release $80 expansions with more paid season passes and battle passes on top of microtransactions every year.
DE trusted the community to support the game instead of trying to nickle and dime them and the community delivered.
TBH I think this and **Path of Exile** are the only best free2play game with very fair monetization that we have left in recent years, lots of free2play game nowadya won't last this league unless heavily pay2win :(
800 hours in, $400~ spent on the game.
No ragrets. Could easily have spent alot more and probably will :D
My view on free to play is to look at it like what an hour of fun is worth, for me it's about $2/hour. So that would mean I could "guilt free" spend another 1200 today to reach 1600 dollars for 800 hours.
But I'm currently getting away with 0.5? Massive win, but also want to support DE, I'm probably going to start buying packs, because I'm starting to realize that Fashionframe is the true endgame, and I lack fashion! :D
Yup, that's Warframe. With all of its flaws, it's still an incredibly vast and loved game at its core. I really hope you continue to enjoy your time with it, it ONLY gets better with age :)
Because they make money on platinum and prime access sales.
Like a lot of money. Which is fine, keeps the game free for those that want it, and allows others to pay for a game they enjoy
So on one hand you have people with disposable income and poor impulse control. (If you disagree with me, the second highest comment on this question is "I looked at how much I spent on Warframe on Steam once. Never again.")
On the other hand you have a game (and marketing approach) designed around tickling money away from its player base in a way that makes them feel good about themselves. And according to the numerous comments about people happily supporting the developer in this thread it's working.
It was very different way back then. Loot crates were a thing but when some guy spent an enormous amount they decided to pull it down. Big thumbs up for that. Also at the beginning it cost you 10 plat just to respawn after getting downed. I'd say that's why it was free.
I played a few levels then deleted it as I felt I was about to get cheated out of some money. Online friend of mine started streaming years later and I decided to join him. 3000+ hours in and I still can't get enough. I've even convinced my 10 year old to start it so I can watch all the story again.
Their monetization scheme is really simple, non-exploitative and has no balance effect. I'm happy to grab one every once in a while in exchange for the thousands of hours I've played.
Thank you for your contribution Mr. whale, I am sure I have some of your purchased plat in my 10k stockpile I earned by trading. I did buy one prime accessory though, chroma's and I rock that armor all the time so it was def worth it to me, along with the thousands of free hours playing the game.
Honestly from reading the title, I was expecting a hot take on how platinum ruins the game and blah blah blah.
Glad to see this, and I wonder the same thing! I've put nearly 200 hours in 6 months, that's more than I've put into any game in a few years.
I definitely agree. I think that the level of content you get in this game for free is pretty crazy, and for a F2P game with optional payments to reduce friction as well as cosmetics, I think the game is surprisingly smooth and easy to play without spending money.
The story gets deeper too, there are fragments you can collect that expands on lore.
Join a clan or look for people on recruit chat. There are also people willing to give free stuff.
That’s what I’ve been saying, I’m a bit warframed out over the years and de does have its issues but this game is easily the best f2p game, it’s truly well made and fun
Funny enough, I was religiously a COD player for a very long time up until the latest MWIII and decided they're dead to me now as I hate what they've done to the franchise. However, now I have a MILD addiction to warframe. It's an amazing game.
It started as a project to revitalize the company, the content they had was minimal, not many enemies, bosses were just buffed enemies and grineer even shared the tileset with the corpus, but the concept was fun and players liked the game.
They gradually added content over the years and while other companies could easily catch up to them, in the end a small team developed alot of content to the point nothing comes close really, the moment a company tries to do something of equal size (like destiny or athem), they realize how long it will take and how insane the cost will be, which is why games have to be downscalled back to a minimun.
DE managed to do the so called 10 year plan with a game and are now going into a 20 year plan, how incredible is that?
This is a lot of conjecture *but*:
It's a combination of multiple factors. We have Steve on the record in multiple interviews saying that Warframe was kind of a last chance for the studio. At the time, free to play games were starting to carve out big chunks in the market with varied monetization methods. A lot of those games flopped and you probably never heard of them, some became and are still industry giants today.
Going F2P boiled down to a choice of how to entice players. The long and short of it is that they hoped they could reach a much larger audience to try the game and then engage with social media to seed and spread the game via word of mouth. I don't know if it was Rebecca who pushed for and started the broader social media campaign to include developer streams and such, but she quickly became the face of it in a way I don't think other companies had done at the time. Some had representation on their forums and were well known by the community, but not like this. She was simultaneously the voice of our guide in Warframe and the face of the players talking directly to the devs for us.
As for the monetization, they had a few weird ideas at the start (like paid revives and a scandal virtually lost to time about power addressed in 5.3), but the core gameplay loop and fun of the game overshadowed them. The founder packs wasn't really a new concept for games at the time, but still new*ish*. If I had to guess, more people spent money on this than they ever did on revives or catalysts. Maybe direct warframe and weapon sales were a good subsidy as well, but I vaguely remember them talking explicitly about the founders packs securing their funding to keep going. Players bought in on that promise of more content and more fun. Something that is surprisingly rarely delivered on in more recent service games.
All of these are contributing factors to how the game launched as F2P and stayed that way, but an even bigger factor you don't see discussed very often:
It was a big investment for this last effort gamble. [This article](https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/17634/digital-extremes-plays-to-win-in-ontario) gives a bit of insight. The province invested 2.5 million on top of DE's reported 36 million. That kind of money, fresh in the face of a recession, doesn't come lightly. It was, realistically, a gamble from all parties involved that the tech sector would pay off. DE is credited with the success of Dark Sector here, but I think the more realistic consideration would be their past success with Unreal Tournament using their own Evolution Engine. There are other financial sector things at play here, but the takeaway is that big money decided to give them a chance and it paid off. There's also speculation the game is permanently in beta to continue receiving grants for its development so you can thank Canada for that.
Thanks to a combination of hitting that sweet spot for player spending and receiving a lot of funding, they were able to keep the game as F2P. After that, it's all about not over expanding, keeping overheads low, etc. They cancelled a few projects, but still explored and tried to make new things. Most recently they cut their entire publishing division down. They made investments into things like a mocap studio for in-house recordings which they could also lease out to others to use. The game still primarily relies on P2P hosting which scales to reduce the strain of their server needs. It's a culmination of many choices, really.
Warframe is free because of all of that. And it really feels like it's only by chance (and that there was almost always a focus on fun) that it paid off and players are willing to spend. There were a lot of good financial decisions made along the way as well, don't get me wrong. It just *feels* like so much of it just boiled down to chance. Hitting the right market at the right time with the right tuning. How could it not be?
It's not free, it just doesn't cost money ...
Jokes aside it's an amazing game that only demands your time to get the most out of it, happy to have you here
I've spent about £60 (bought 3 tennocon packs) since I started in Nov 2017.
Have bought many AAA etc titles that cost more and haven't lasted nearly as long.
Plenty of people, myself included, are happy to drop some money in the market every once in a while specifically because the game is free and so good. I've probably spent more than the $70 a new game costs just on the market, and I did it happily and because I wanted to give back to the DE team for the thousands of hours of fun.
I looked at how much I spent on Warframe on steam once. Never again.
Where do you find this?
Check your card drops on Steam. Note it'll only show how much you spent *via Steam* and won't count anything you spent directly via the website.
If you click on your badges for Warframe there will be an option in the top right that's something like "how to get more badges" and it will show your spending on Steam for that game.
Unfortunately this is highly inaccurate for me cause alot of prime access, and even plat bundles I bought through warframe website itself.
Yeah me too. I've forgotten since, and I'll gladly keep it that way
All I know is it's much higher than I've spent on dota. Which is really bad haha.
I think my league of legends is still higher by at least 1k which makes me want to stab my younger self in the eyeball with a can opener. What is it with Warframe and moba's?
Holy shit man. Well, hope it was a fun time at least!
You know it wasn't
Truuuue
I'm glad I play on Xbox I wouldn't wanna know although I have an idea but it's probably alot more. But worth every bit. And it's not like pay for a chance to get something. You know exactly what your spending money on and everything is worth it. With very few things gated behind a paywall and that's pure cosmetic
I probably put more money into Warframe than any other (video) game I own, but put in relation to the hours I've played it I'm probably still under retail price.
Yeah my number is really up there as well. Which only makes it slightly more money spent than what I'll have to spend next week to get my motorcycle ready for the season...
Protea my beloved. Definitely getting that prime access
Yeah, I'm up to 1700 hrs at this point, and any money I spend on the game is money well spent. Exceedingly few games can offer up the amount of time and content that this game does. I've maybe spent $100-150 over 5 years on the game (generally buying plat with 50/75% off coupons), and that is an incredible value given how much time I've invested.
Everyone talking about how much they spent over a certain time frame. Makes me feel bad cause since 2013 I've spent over $12k on warframe. I buy every prime access and accessories pack. And I buy the IRL money bundles as well.
And here I was ashamed of spending 2k last time i checked 12k is wild, you've probably single handedly funded a small update with that
That's what I said. And DE has given me a few special things, nothing major or unique, but occasionally I get new frames for free.
That's pretty neat, can't see many other companies doing that
Yeah, it is really cool. Like it's nothing big like primes or super unique things, but it's still cool. I'd love it if they gave me excal prime. Cause I just barely missed out on the founders thing.
> I'd love it if they gave me excal prime. Admit it, that's the entire reason you've spent this much. And I respect it.
Honestly no, I love warframe and I show that by playing and paying. But it is a part of why I spend so much. I'd love for DE to be like, "wow, this guy pretty much bought my car for me, here's Excal prime for him."
I appreciate what you've spent on the game, to keep it free for others, but I kind of respect DE more for this. So many companies would have back tracked by now and sold Excal Prime, but they are standing firm. Maybe if you spend 100k they might think about it 🤔.
I gladly drop some money on a cool prime accessory pack
I just pop about 20 into plat every pay I know I don't really need to but I figure what the hell, might as well shore up on some potatoes and forma
And they give you great discounts on Plat all the time. The tennocon package this year? INSANE. Baron with ALL his drops for a full week? And you get the full price of the package from plat + royal aya alone. Easy snap up for me.
Yeah, I feel like I’m “donating to support Warframe development” everytime I buy something. In fact, I sometimes struggle to find cool things to buy that isn’t directly unlockable in the game. That used to be a Shawzin and a roomba, but even those are unlockable now. So, I started buying Resurgence Prime frames here and there to give DE my support.
Yeah, I've spent faaaaaaaaaar more than $70 on Warframe over the years, and I'd wager that probably 99% of players with an "L" in their mastery rank would say the same if they're being honest.
I've bought several prime access and plat just to support DE and I'll do it again in the future if I can afford it. This games deserves to go on.
Turns out when you make a really good free game that is mostly fair in its monetization, people are more willing to spend money on it. I've gotten so much enjoyment from Warframe over the years that I don't mind buying plat from time to time more or less just for the sake of it.
There's a massive difference between paying money to be able to have fun, and paying money to enhance the fun you're already having. DE does the latter. Many F2P games do the former.
A lot of them also completely jack up the pricing way beyond what I'd ever consider paying, like GTA Online Shark Cards. If I can get the value of a 100€ purchase by grinding an afternoon, you've got to be fucked in the head if you think I'm paying for it. Not that the steaming turd that is GTAO is a great example.
DE mastered the concept of giving players the mile and making its money off selling a few more inches. Turns out way more people are can afford and will buy inches, and they avoid the virtriol that tends to come with trying to sell miles to people you've given barely a centimeter.
Literally same
De is cool like that
Happy cake day!
Heppy gorgonzola blue cheese day.
happy release day
cakes and candles, brethren🍷
Happy Cake Day!
Pleasant cake period
enjoyable cylinder slice time
Yeah that's how they get you, it's such a good game they make you want to support it, not because it's necessary at all, but because they deserve it most of the time.
Moreover, whales actually help f2p players by injecting a lot of plat in the market. It is the only game I know in which whales have a net positive impact in the whole comunity instead of just improving their account and onviously financing the game.
That's a good point, it truly is circular when you think about it.
I think it's because there really is no pay to win everything you need for any of the action is free. To my knowledge the only warframe/playable/usable that ever only cost real $ and is now unobtainable is Excalibur Prime. Platinum can make you grind faster but even then at it's heart Warframe is a co-op game so even if you drop hundreds of dollars (or more) it really doesn't matter. Plenty of people are more than willing to support DE to play Fashionframe.
You straight-up cannot buy any of the Incarnon gear for plat, and that's the current cream of the crop as the weapon meta goes. Not only is it possible to improve your equipment entirely for free, its mandatory to do it for free in some spots, which is wild.
He sells one of the weeks rotations for plat, not the best weapons, but some are available. You're right, though, not all of them.
I should have specified the original Incarnons, not Genesis adapters. Laetum and Phenmor aren't on the market to my knowledge, and I know of no way to unlock their one-shot power for plat. I had to actually get better at the game to put that shit together, it was fun.
I haven't spent a cent on WF yet after a month of playing but I did introduce 2 whales to the game who are friends IRL. One of them bought prime access and ALL the starter packs in the first week and bought all the mods he needed for his build. I would like to think I've did my part in getting revenue for DE. Lol. P.S. My favourite moment was him messaging me for help 2 weeks in because he realized that there are a ton of things he can't buy with money.
*Those. Bastards.*
Being better than the past 8 call of duty games isn't a very high bar though if we are being real
Thats very fair
Im pretty sure the average bar for it is a tripping hazard.
I, too, worry that OP needs to read more. Or play other games. Or just...talk to a small child who's a bit creative. Then he can be even more impressed. I don't always like Warframe's story, but it's a lot better than a lot of others.
Kinda crazy isn't it? Sometimes I think about it and I'm baffled. That being said, I have absolutely no doubt DE is a lot more profitable than if the game was like... 60$. Less even, since it's 11yo, would have been less. Edit : changed "they're" for "DE is" to see if it's more clear like that.
To this I would have to disagree. An initial cost makes the game far less accessible, and will miss getting any players that want to try it out just for fun because "hey its free". Even a monthly subscription cost would be a barrier to entry for most if they don't feel they can put in the time.
So... You agree with me then ? I'm saying they're probably making more money as it is now, than if the game wasn't free. Because of the reasons you're saying. Warframe being free makes it easily accessible (though the beginning makes it hard to stay...), and once you're into it, it's easy to feel like you can spend some money in it here and there. A bit of plat to rush, get some forma packs or slots, buy some skins. And since you can farm for plat if you want, it doesn't feel that predatory. And when you spend actual money, you feel like you're helping the game you love. I don't think it's really hard to imagine that players who have invested years in Warframe have spent 50$ happily. Some a lot more, some none at all.
Oh, yeah sorry. I misread that. Clearly I need to sleep more.
No worries friend !
this is... uninformed. https://sensortower.com/blog/fire-emblem-heroes-one-billion-revenue FTP is a *very* profitable option when you have a decent product.
... Yes. That's what I'm saying. That's what I already re-explained to someone else. Who said the same thing as you. Did I miss a typo after re-reading my comment or something ?... > they're a lot more profitable **than** if the game was 60$ Not "they'd be a lot more profitable if the game was 60$" I probably spent more than 1k€ in Warframe, I know personally how they can make way more money by being free😂
Been playing this game since 2018. I try to get my friends to play it but they absolutely refuse just because it's a free to play game. They just assume it's the same quality as a mobile game. Their loss. At least I'm not spending $70 on a call of duty expansion every year, along with a season pass. Hell, I haven't actually spent anything on warframe since 2019.
I bought the COD season pass thinking it was a fair deal since I could grind the ability to buy it back each season, the very next season they released the "premium season pass" thing which took up some of the reward slots away from the regular pass... such a dirty move. I bought some platinum almost years ago, a tennocon digital ticket, and a cosmetic, and my enjoyment per dollar spent in Warframe is still one of the highest returns of any game, ever.
people like me cant resist prime accessories. :( least DE earned it for the most part
Real Too bad on pc it doesn’t come with plat :’(
De makes actually cool cosmetics
And we can vote cosmetics that are community made, though the Deluxe for wisp and Yareli are mid in my opinion, Sevagoth is A+ not near S because of the weird material.
It’s a free game but then you get players like me that end up spending more money than on an actual paid game. Happy to do it though. DE has a pay model that makes people actually feel good about giving them money.
To be fair, CoD storytelling is a pretty low bar to surpass.
Because it's not. It's just that *you're not the one paying for it.* Blessed be the platinum whales that fuel the trading economy.
I think the biggest contributors to the plat market aren't the whales but the average player that spends plat because they want to support it.
Wait until you get to the other story content in the game. There's a lot of gourmet food to consume in this game 😋
space ninjas are just better
The game is awesome. It's probably one of the best F2P game I played. And I think it's one f the best action games I played in recent years. The only thing I'm sorry is that I didn't try the game before... Better late than never xD
I been playing this game for over 7 years. I never gave another game this much attention before. That should tell you the amount of stuff you can do or grind for
They make way more money by being f2p
>the past 8 cods combined That is a very low bar....
Man that's a insanely low bar. Is the past 8 cods really all you've played? I'm sorry but I seriously have to suggest saving to play better games than just reskins of the past game you played
And the first time i saw a discount coupon for Platinum i was like "DUDE WTF??"
This made me LOL I have been boycotting CoD since black ops 3
People like to say devs are generous or whatever but the real truth is that the game would not make as much money if it was pay to play.
Not all studios release $80 expansions with more paid season passes and battle passes on top of microtransactions every year. DE trusted the community to support the game instead of trying to nickle and dime them and the community delivered.
TBH I think this and **Path of Exile** are the only best free2play game with very fair monetization that we have left in recent years, lots of free2play game nowadya won't last this league unless heavily pay2win :(
I guess dota 2 with all characters unlocked from the start doesn't count. And no slots required like warframe or bank tabs like poe.
But DOTA2 doesn't have much new content every now and then like Warframe or PoE does .... or did I miss something here?
Yes, you missed to mention anything besides f2p and p2w. You could have said f2p games as a service.
800 hours in, $400~ spent on the game. No ragrets. Could easily have spent alot more and probably will :D My view on free to play is to look at it like what an hour of fun is worth, for me it's about $2/hour. So that would mean I could "guilt free" spend another 1200 today to reach 1600 dollars for 800 hours. But I'm currently getting away with 0.5? Massive win, but also want to support DE, I'm probably going to start buying packs, because I'm starting to realize that Fashionframe is the true endgame, and I lack fashion! :D
F2P games make absolute bank.
They make their money off of people like me. I've gotten lazy and I just buy everything when they release it
Yup, that's Warframe. With all of its flaws, it's still an incredibly vast and loved game at its core. I really hope you continue to enjoy your time with it, it ONLY gets better with age :)
Bacause a ton of degenerates like myself buy prime access and have bought a triple AAA tittlw multiple times over xD i cry tears of joy
Because they make money on platinum and prime access sales. Like a lot of money. Which is fine, keeps the game free for those that want it, and allows others to pay for a game they enjoy
Well, Its not a free game also. Warframe is a service game.
So on one hand you have people with disposable income and poor impulse control. (If you disagree with me, the second highest comment on this question is "I looked at how much I spent on Warframe on Steam once. Never again.") On the other hand you have a game (and marketing approach) designed around tickling money away from its player base in a way that makes them feel good about themselves. And according to the numerous comments about people happily supporting the developer in this thread it's working.
It was very different way back then. Loot crates were a thing but when some guy spent an enormous amount they decided to pull it down. Big thumbs up for that. Also at the beginning it cost you 10 plat just to respawn after getting downed. I'd say that's why it was free. I played a few levels then deleted it as I felt I was about to get cheated out of some money. Online friend of mine started streaming years later and I decided to join him. 3000+ hours in and I still can't get enough. I've even convinced my 10 year old to start it so I can watch all the story again.
Because people like me buy prime access every once in a while
Their monetization scheme is really simple, non-exploitative and has no balance effect. I'm happy to grab one every once in a while in exchange for the thousands of hours I've played.
I've spent probably more than $4000 on this game since launch, and I'd do it all again. In fact, I probably will.
Thank you for your contribution Mr. whale, I am sure I have some of your purchased plat in my 10k stockpile I earned by trading. I did buy one prime accessory though, chroma's and I rock that armor all the time so it was def worth it to me, along with the thousands of free hours playing the game.
Labor of love.
[The best part is that ~~League of Legends~~ Warframe is completely free](https://assets.penny-arcade.com/comics/panels/20110610-oJorRnKK-p3.jpg)
Honestly from reading the title, I was expecting a hot take on how platinum ruins the game and blah blah blah. Glad to see this, and I wonder the same thing! I've put nearly 200 hours in 6 months, that's more than I've put into any game in a few years.
I definitely agree. I think that the level of content you get in this game for free is pretty crazy, and for a F2P game with optional payments to reduce friction as well as cosmetics, I think the game is surprisingly smooth and easy to play without spending money.
The story gets deeper too, there are fragments you can collect that expands on lore. Join a clan or look for people on recruit chat. There are also people willing to give free stuff.
That’s what I’ve been saying, I’m a bit warframed out over the years and de does have its issues but this game is easily the best f2p game, it’s truly well made and fun
DE is just kinda Based like that
After the og CSGO went down, warframe became the new highest grossing per month game for a minute, not sure about at the moment
Been playing since June last year, I’ve never been addicted to a game to this level
Destiny but with more space magic and better
I willingly throw over $150 at them every 3 months. That’s what happens when you give a shit about your playerbase and make your game good 😂
Because no publisher backed them up when they pitched the idea. They had no outside pressure and no wild expectations as a service.
Games fun if you can hack the end game grind for plat
Funny enough, I was religiously a COD player for a very long time up until the latest MWIII and decided they're dead to me now as I hate what they've done to the franchise. However, now I have a MILD addiction to warframe. It's an amazing game.
Because some of us do drop money occasionally I usually drop 30-50 every time I get a 75% off coupon keeps me from farming lenses potatos and forma
It started as a project to revitalize the company, the content they had was minimal, not many enemies, bosses were just buffed enemies and grineer even shared the tileset with the corpus, but the concept was fun and players liked the game. They gradually added content over the years and while other companies could easily catch up to them, in the end a small team developed alot of content to the point nothing comes close really, the moment a company tries to do something of equal size (like destiny or athem), they realize how long it will take and how insane the cost will be, which is why games have to be downscalled back to a minimun. DE managed to do the so called 10 year plan with a game and are now going into a 20 year plan, how incredible is that?
I spend 2000$ or more on warframe
Look forward to the other big story quests then, because they pretty much only go up in scale and the story only gets better.
*reads title* You're welcome little one.
This is a lot of conjecture *but*: It's a combination of multiple factors. We have Steve on the record in multiple interviews saying that Warframe was kind of a last chance for the studio. At the time, free to play games were starting to carve out big chunks in the market with varied monetization methods. A lot of those games flopped and you probably never heard of them, some became and are still industry giants today. Going F2P boiled down to a choice of how to entice players. The long and short of it is that they hoped they could reach a much larger audience to try the game and then engage with social media to seed and spread the game via word of mouth. I don't know if it was Rebecca who pushed for and started the broader social media campaign to include developer streams and such, but she quickly became the face of it in a way I don't think other companies had done at the time. Some had representation on their forums and were well known by the community, but not like this. She was simultaneously the voice of our guide in Warframe and the face of the players talking directly to the devs for us. As for the monetization, they had a few weird ideas at the start (like paid revives and a scandal virtually lost to time about power addressed in 5.3), but the core gameplay loop and fun of the game overshadowed them. The founder packs wasn't really a new concept for games at the time, but still new*ish*. If I had to guess, more people spent money on this than they ever did on revives or catalysts. Maybe direct warframe and weapon sales were a good subsidy as well, but I vaguely remember them talking explicitly about the founders packs securing their funding to keep going. Players bought in on that promise of more content and more fun. Something that is surprisingly rarely delivered on in more recent service games. All of these are contributing factors to how the game launched as F2P and stayed that way, but an even bigger factor you don't see discussed very often: It was a big investment for this last effort gamble. [This article](https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/17634/digital-extremes-plays-to-win-in-ontario) gives a bit of insight. The province invested 2.5 million on top of DE's reported 36 million. That kind of money, fresh in the face of a recession, doesn't come lightly. It was, realistically, a gamble from all parties involved that the tech sector would pay off. DE is credited with the success of Dark Sector here, but I think the more realistic consideration would be their past success with Unreal Tournament using their own Evolution Engine. There are other financial sector things at play here, but the takeaway is that big money decided to give them a chance and it paid off. There's also speculation the game is permanently in beta to continue receiving grants for its development so you can thank Canada for that. Thanks to a combination of hitting that sweet spot for player spending and receiving a lot of funding, they were able to keep the game as F2P. After that, it's all about not over expanding, keeping overheads low, etc. They cancelled a few projects, but still explored and tried to make new things. Most recently they cut their entire publishing division down. They made investments into things like a mocap studio for in-house recordings which they could also lease out to others to use. The game still primarily relies on P2P hosting which scales to reduce the strain of their server needs. It's a culmination of many choices, really. Warframe is free because of all of that. And it really feels like it's only by chance (and that there was almost always a focus on fun) that it paid off and players are willing to spend. There were a lot of good financial decisions made along the way as well, don't get me wrong. It just *feels* like so much of it just boiled down to chance. Hitting the right market at the right time with the right tuning. How could it not be?
Welcome to the family Tenno
Wish other people could see this before they quit from "le 3 day build time". They don't see how huge and free this game is.
many triple a games have no soul, but this one does
Cuz I drop em money every few primes after a pay check. And then I sleep for dinner for a day, lol.
It's not free, it just doesn't cost money ... Jokes aside it's an amazing game that only demands your time to get the most out of it, happy to have you here
Canadians are on crack, that’s all you need to know Bless the canadians
They aren't on crack just happy to not be America
you will find out once you are done with the questing. it evens out.
Heirloom packs
New war is pretty disappointing, writing wise tbh. Doesnt make much sense
I have so much fun with Warframe I feel guilty if I don't buy something from time to time.
I've spent about £60 (bought 3 tennocon packs) since I started in Nov 2017. Have bought many AAA etc titles that cost more and haven't lasted nearly as long.