Paul Wedgwood: Splash Damage’s F2P games ‘as ethical as possible’

Free-to-play gaming and In-App Purchases have been in the news lately, with the UK’s Office of Fair Trading now investigating free-to-play games and their monetisation practices. Willard Foxton over at the Telegraph argues that parents should take more responsiblity in an editorial, which also features Splash Damage’s CEO Paul Wedgwood.

Paul sheds some light on common free-to-play practices and how we’re approaching the genre:

I grew up on a council estate – when I was a kid, I couldn’t afford games, and if I could afford one, it had to be really good. We try to be as ethical as possible with our games. We wanted something that was great, that could be played well by putting in time and little money; something that’s completely free from the start.

A lot of free to play games are over-monetised; that’s partly because lots of them are developed in the far east, where people have a different view of how you should succeed at gaming. In the West, we tend to see that the person with the most skill should win, not the person with the most money.

What’s your take on the free-to-play market? Do you agree with Paul’s stance?