Free for All: Smedley helps us understand free-to-play

Filed under: Business models, Interviews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Free for All, Miscellaneous

John Smedley has been in this business a long, long time. Under his eye, Sony Online Entertainment has released some of the most influential and controversial titles out there. It should surprise no one that he has had to become very flexible when it comes to his customers, but he's also very decisive when it comes to fluctuations in the market.

One of those fluctuations is the coming of free-to-play gaming and unlimited trial payment models. Of all the audiences in the world of gaming, SOE's tend to skew a bit older. These are players who might not appreciate all changes and who definitely know what they like. And so when Smedley and SOE released freemium titles like Free Realms and rolled out free versions of one of their most popular titles, EverQuest II, some said it would be the end of SOE.

Well, they're still here. And Smedley was kind enough to take some time to talk to me about this very subject. Click past the cut for more!

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Free for All: Smedley helps us understand free-to-play originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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