Director's Cut?

[Jackolantern]

I have been thinking of some ways to sell games on mobile, with the rise of "Freemium" games, and my complete lack of desire to go that route. What I want (and I bet many other developers as well) is to find an economical way to give a complete game away for free that is not just a demo, and then still have player interest in possibly converting to the pay version. Freemium games have spoiled players in a fairly large way today, where simply putting a demo up as the free version is a quick way to get a flood of 1-star reviews ("This #%@ is only 2 levels! Don't download!").

But what about releasing the full game for free, but then offer a "Director's Cut" for a fee. The saves between both versions would need to be shared (any platform app origin policies could be gotten-around with network-based saving in concert with local saves), but the Director's Cut would offer story differences, alternative endings, special features and more. Essentially the same thing that DVD and Blu-Ray releases do to entice people into buying another copy of a movie they already own.

Of course, this would largely only work on games that are story-based. If there is no investment in the story, then seeing alterations to the story would likely be of little value. You would also have to be careful in how you let the players experience the changes, so that they aren't having to go back and replay large parts of the game that would feel like retreading the same story just to see differences. There would also need to be enough cues in the free version to make the players interested in a Director's Cut.

I don't know if it would work out, but I think it is a potential idea. What do you think?

[Xaos]

When I read this, I yelled "Jacko you're a genius. " I love this idea so much.

[Jackolantern]

When I read this, I yelled "Jacko you're a genius. " I love this idea so much.

Wow, thank you!