I think it's an amazingly risky move to make, that could be amazing and could be disastrous. On the plus side: Free = More Players More Players = More Money On the negative side: More Advertising = Worse Game Experience = Less Money Less Money = Can't keep expensive servers = Lag = Worse Game Experience = Less Money It could potentially be a downward spiral if they don't launch well. A game like this is dependent on having enough players for a better game experience and ngmoco really have to nail the start for this to take off.
more advertising equals more money. If you have a incredibly hyped, FREE game then you will get tons and tons of players. People who want their game to be heard of enjoy paying other people with good apps to advertise their game. Hmmmm.... now we have the basics down.. lets take a real life example... oh yeah the super bowl. Companies pay thousands of dollars to get a commercial on during the super bowl. Even if the football game does suck. Same principle here. Ngmoco will rake in cash from people who want to adverstise their game. Heck its the superbowl in app form. They can charge huge prices for it. But then you guys say that if its a bad game then ngmoco will lose money. Well that is true, but the advertisers will still pay a lot of money. Its a one of kind (modern combat isnt free) game on the iphone/ipod chances are its gonna pass through many people's hands. Also with the hype, people are gonna download it even if it lags. Then when people start quitting it'll stop lagging, then more gradually more people will come, then more money, then it gets back on top. The downward sprial always leads to a bounceback, as long as people dont all bail at once. Oh and also, people will keep the game for simply the singleplayer "practice mode", that should keep the game fun for a few hours.
