Future Ubisoft games could offer in-game purchases after taking an initial $60 chomp of your wallet. GamesBeat (opens in new tab) says during an investor call, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez and Worldwide Online Director Stéphanie Perotti acknowledged the "flexibility" of free-to-play business models and the "opportunity" for full-priced games offering microtransactional items.
"Free-to-play is a very flexible business model," Perotti said. "The player has the capability to spend more than in a traditional model. We can control everything from the pricing to marketing as if we were an online store (opens in new tab) ."
"With games like Watch Dogs, we could see more opportunity for $60 games to learn from the free-to-play model," Martinez added. "The next generation will offer more and more item-based content. This will benefit our games' profitability."
Ubisoft has a less-than-stellar reputation on the PC, but its outlook on harnessing the free-to-play model -- especially the rising go-to strategy of implementing item shops -- isn't untested (see: Mass Effect 3). I just hope I won't see a single polka-dotted bandana mask in Watch Dogs.
