This post was originally published as part of a regular series on gamasutra. It is reproduced here with permission. Retention is the key measure of success for a free-to-play game. This fact should send a frisson of fear...

Traditional media businesses are all about volume. Every customer pays the same amount, so the only variable that matters is how many customers you have. In the online world, every customer is different. They can pay anything...

"Free-to-play" games have caused intense reactions in the gaming community, with strong views on whether it is an ethically sound way to design games or whether it is slot machines in disguise. When we designed Forever Drive,...

Last month, I spoke at Osborne Clark’s seminar for inhouse lawyers for the games industry. It was afternoon of legal stuff, together with me talking about piracy and free. Jas Purewal (also known as @gamerlaw on Twitter)...

It’s been a while since the first article about Zombie Ball (Launching an iPhone game: what we got wrong) on GamesBrief, and the team has decided to continue sharing our story. I’m grateful to Nicholas for both...

Freemium or free-to-play have been the business model buzzwords in games for the last two years. We've begun to move from the kneejerk reactions ("they're not even games", "people who play them are stupid") to an emerging...

Undercroft is just one example of a game that is free, with no expectation that it will generate any direct revenue at all. It is a good game with relatively high production values. If you are charging...