I recently have played some I Gameloft's old games, which seem to be generous with in game currency and items. I remember seeing people play asphalt 5 five years ago and getting about 100,000 per race. I now play games like asphalt 8 and I have to repeatedly grind for just one car...
To be fair to Gameloft, you are comparing a game that was released at $7 to a game that was initially $1 and has dropped to free. Asphalt 5 has never dropped to free. So if lowering their price constitutes greed them I'm afraid I don't understand the word.
And complacent,After a profit of 250million$ which just half that of season console publisher 2k which infact had made a profit of 500million dollars the same year(which btw was the highest for them is some time.You can only wonder that they would put some of those profit in creating games but no.GL is done as far as I'm considered they are no longe interested in making big budget games and why should they when they are making ton of money creating mindless crap.
All that profit isn't going into improving graphic engines and game mechanics etc.. but instead it is funding there lavish lifestyles whilst laughing at your face whilst you continue to purchase IAP's from like an addict!
Best games by Gameloft before they went all crazy with the F2P model were GT Academy (the premium one which they removed), Shadow Guardian, Dungeon Hunter 1 & 2, Let's Golf 2, and Rise of Lost Empires which was a ridiculously good Warcraft 2 clone but they removed it from the store for some reason, probably broken and didn't feel like updating it. Order & Chaos premium version was cool for a bit, which I got for free through IGN's promo code, but for some reason the game doesn't even load on iOS 7 so I gave up on it. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Y'all are conveniently ignoring the fact that MC5's completely premium with no IAP and extensive postlaunch support planned. It's their biggest title yet and has been in development for nearly two years. So just shut up already.
Ha! They're doing this to make you forget what gameloft are really all about. you will forget all their sins.. But not for long after they continue to release more money grabbing apps.
Like tasm2(which they didn't bother to update months adter they released it for a framerate fix,still lags badly on A7),rival knights, dungeon whatever.....
I'm speaking only for myself when I say this, but my problem is when the game is free, but way too Grindy to unlock stuff and conveniently offers you a way to pay for currency. Why can't I spend say... $5 and just unlock the stuff faster? That way, I'm spending money, and I'm not having to buy more currency when I need it.
*Raises hand* I usually avoid these topics as they devolve in "FREEMIUM AND IAPS KILLED MY PARENTS IN A DARK ALLEYWAY AND ATE MY DOGGIE!"
Sure it's a business, but the creation of video games is also an art. One of the major issues with the freemium/paidmium model is that it can put those two aspects at odds with each other, when for instance, the game balance must be carefully structured based on the pay model rather than maximum player enjoyment. Anyway, yeah it's definitely a business, but you can't trivialize the feelings of many gamers (not just people who play games on mobile devices, but actual gamers who appreciate the art of the video game) who resent this recent trend by making obvious and condescending blanket statements that ignore the significant details of the situation. I'm sure gameloft was smart to make the changes they did, they were always more businesslike than artistic anyway, but I'm also sure that I can sympathize with those who miss the way things used to be.
Exactly what I was thinking. The bigger Gameloft gets, the 'worse' it will get. The have to find a way to pay their employees and continue developing games, so if a game is free of course a large company (not just Gameloft) is gonna put IAP in it