Free-to-play Battlefield on Console Not Happening

EA Studios executive vice president Patrick Söderlund said that a free-to-play version of EA's Battlefield series is not coming to consoles any time soon.

"Will console games be free-to-play going forward? There will be some games that will be free-to-play but I also think that they will be different in nature to full games," he told MCV. "I think a lot of people prefer to pay for the full game and get access to everything. And I wouldn't use the word free-to-play; they are not free."

Söderlund said that both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as their predecessors host free-to-play games. He also thinks that the free-to-play games and the $60 boxed products can coexist peacefully.

“I think all these business models will co-exist," he said. "Some prefer to pay $60 and get the full experience. Sometimes when I play freemium games on mobile I feel ‘these guys just want more money.’ When I pay $60 for Battlefield, I know what I am getting. And I think there are players that prefer that. And it’s not a case of one or another, they can both exist and there may be hybrids too.”

Lastly he spoke of how he thinks the free-to-play business model for the mobile games, does not necessarily mean the same thing will happen to console games.

"I still think the console market is different to the mobile market," Söderlund said. "Mobile games are much cheaper. It’s like film. YouTube is free, but to see Gravity at the cinema, it will cost you money. One does not remove the other one."

“Only 18 months ago, most mobile games were full game [paid] downloads. Now I’d say 90 percent are freemium,” he added. “That change happened very quickly. Whether that will happen on the consoles I don't know."