While live service games can rake in the biggest bucks, they also face the challenge of having to live on for years and years. If a game comes stumbling out of the gate, it is almost impossible for it to regain its footing.
The games below all have different stories behind their launches. Some were successful at the start, while others almost crashed and burned immediately. However, they all eventually went free-to-play, and it proved the right move for all of them. The term can have a stigma to it, but these games have proven it is not always a bad thing.
8Fall Guys
Developer Mediatonicdid not expectFall Guys: Ultimate Knockoutto become as popular as it did. It initially came out for free on PS Plus, which helped its play count on day one. The simple premise also helped it spread, since almost anybody could play and understand its rules.
In June 2022, the game went free-to-play after Epic acquired the publishing rights. The game already sold 10 million copies beforehand, but now has about 50 million players thanks to the cost of entry and its release on more platforms.
7Destiny 2
Fans were suspicious thatDestiny 2came out at all, considering the game has always been more of a service ratherthan a traditional FPS.After developer Bungie left Activision and became independent — before eventually being bought by Sony — they madeDestiny 2a free-to-play title. This meant that everybody’s discs mean nothing.
RELATED:Best Free Sci-Fi Video Games
The developer regularly circulates content in and out, which itself is a controversial move and makes it hard for newcomers to get intoDestiny 2. Ultimately, however, going free-to-play was the right move and makes it easy for everyone to at least try out despite the mountain of content.
6Rocket League
At least this was the case until 2020 when the game went free-to-play. The update that made this transition also added cross-platform progression. Players also no longer need a subscription to a console’s online service to access the multiplayer, which further lowers the barrier for entry.
5Lord Of The Rings Online
This MMORPG might not be as popular as its peers, but it is a dream come true for fans of the franchise.It is the closest they get to living inside Middle-Earth.
Players used to have to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of doing so from its 2007 release until 2010. Once it went free-to-play, the developer reported seeing their revenue more than triple, obviously making it the right move for the company. The last expansion came out in 2021, so fans of the game have plenty of content to go through.
4Fortnite
Fortnite’s free-to-play battle royale mode is so immensely popular, most gamers forget this was a simple add-on and not, in fact, the main feature. The part of the game players had to pay for was the “Save The World” mode, which is about players building, fortifying, and defending a fort from hordes of undead.
RELATED:Free-To-Play Games That Bombed At Launch But Then Found An Audience
Player Unknown’s Battlegroundscame out in 2017 and inspired Epic games to try their hand at the genre itself. Unlike a lot of the other games on this list,Fortnite’sfree-to-play mode was added very early after release — during early access, actually — andended up changing the course of modern mainstream gaming.
3Star Wars: The Old Republic
This is not the first MMORPG based onStar Wars.Star Wars Galaxieswas a popular MMORPG in the early 2000s that was famous for how obtuse and difficult it was to become a Jedi. An update made it much easier and marked a downturn for the title.Star Wars: The Old Republichad an absurdly successful launch, but the hype died down quickly.
To make sure the numbers stayed steady, the 2011 MMORPG added a mode with a free-to-play option. A subscription is still available, but playing for free gives players most of the content and features already available with just a few limitations.
2Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Many of the world’s most successful games started as a mod.Counter-Strikedid this long before a lot of other games got their start in a similar fashion. Its most recent version,Counter-Strike: Global Offensivewas released on multiple platforms in 2012, including the PS3.
RELATED:Things That Have Changed About Counter-Strike Global Offensive Since 2012
The game had a relatively normal life until 2018, when a Battle-Royale mode was added and the game was made free-to-play. Now, most of the income comes from cosmetics. With a game as hardcore asCounter-Strike, it is positive to get more players in there so that not only experts jump into games.
1Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2was the multiplayer component forThe Orange Box.It also stood out for its cartoonish art style. The PC version saw regular updates for years while the PS3 and Xbox 360 releases remained largely the same. In 2011 a huge change was implemented once the title went free-to-play.
Now with the plethora of game modes, cosmetics, and stats, modernTeam Fortress 2is nearly unrecognizable from the 2007 release.However, one cannot argue against it considering it still lives on in 2022 after a 2007 release. Besides, players can still plug in their PS3 or Xbox 360 to play the game as it was more than ten years ago.
