After 10 long years of Pico Park using colourful little guys to rip apart friendship groups, the developer TecoPark has accidentally turned off monetisation on the classic edition, making it permanently free-to-play.
"I was planning to switch to a paid plan after updating the online support, but I forgot that once you switch from paid to free, I can never go back to paid," TecoPark says in a Steam blog post (via GamesRadar). "If you enjoy playing this free version, be sure to try the series (Pico Park, Pico Park 2)."
It's quite the unfortunate blunder, and my heart goes out to the dev for accidentally backing themself into this corner. Although the good news is that the more recent version of Pico Park is still $5 (£49), and Pico Park 2 is $9 (£7.49), so there is still some monetisation coming from this series of co-op platformers.
It seems like the error was made after TecoPark decided to make the classic edition free while updating it for the first time in nine years. "Since I'm doing it anyway, I'll update it with online support. I might charge a small fee for it… We'll keep it free for about a week." Cue the next blog post, which reads "Classic edition is permanently free!"
There are ways to switch monetisation on and off for games, see Content Warning, which had a 24-hour free period when it first came to Steam. It must be a different setting, but that doesn't change the fact that this slip-up seems like an oversight on Valve's behalf.
The whole debacle does seem like a shame given just how great Pico Park is, but there could be a silver lining. The classic edition being free is a great excuse for players to check this game out. I've played plenty of Pico Park, and it's truly one of the best co-op platformers out there.
Teaming up with friends to solve puzzles in Pico Park is just as hilarious as it is infuriating. I've had friends drag me into an abyss, leave me for dead at the bottom of an elevator, and fail to connect their remaining two brain cells to get us to the next checkpoint. It's tricky but good quality fun that I'd recommend everyone check out, especially now that the classic edition is free. Then, if you like that, maybe you could give Pico Park 2 a look.
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