Is energy over? Zynga uses energy as a monetisation method, and as a result, many players now see energy as a cynical money-grabbing ploy that typifies the cynical exploitation endemic in free-to-play games. Yet Boss Alien, the...

One of the GAMESbrief design rules is that players must not fail, using examples such as Backbreaker and Bejewelled Blitz. It has also been one of the more controversial, with comments via Twitter and the web saying...

I will shortly be writing a piece for MCV, the UK games industry magazine that is heavily read by retailers, about free-to-play. I was told that the journalists at MCV are often told that the UK just...

Much attention is being paid in the press to traditional game companies (such as Valve) who are starting to integrate F2P ideas into their products - the (slightly offensive?) implication often being that "real" game companies are...

While other companies in the console games business are struggling to adapt, Nintendo has so far defied expectations - most notably by managing to sell tens of millions of 3DS consoles, despite the ubiquity of smartphones and...

Harry Holmwood writes: “A colleague and I downloaded New Star Soccer at the airport and were playing it on a flight back from Germany last week, got hooked, but then hit the 'hard payment' point where we...

Following Gasketball’s well-publicised problems, Tadhg Kelly argued the developer’s difficulties stemmed from misunderstanding freemium. To Tadhg, freemium is all about “earning repeat business”. Via Twitter, Benjamin Cousins disagreed, arguing that the first purchase is the priority for...