Playfab recently introduced a new free tier that provides some nifty features for $0.00! I might be a little bias but I think this is AWESOME! Simply having accounts lets players feel continuity in match-based multiplayer games. Plus, with a little fluffy code here and there, piracy could be 99% done away with.
How exactly do you think this would curb piracy?
They always had a free-ish service anyway, so its nothing new really. Most games will rarely crack the 2000 DAU required to start paying.
Ah, true, but if a game does break 2000 DAU, it might not be able to afford $.002 per DAU. I think this will curb piracy by forcing players to have accounts to play. Account access can be controlled.
That’s when it got expensive, which is why they introduced this new free tier option.
you need to create an account on pc, and that can be enforced, however for smartphone you often wont require the user to add those sorts of details. Sure you can ban accounts, but all a user has to do on iOS is re-install the game, then the DeviceId is re-generated (which is completely STUPID imo - but whatever apple can do whatever they like it seems)
Isn’t it possible to link accounts with a purchase of the game?
Indeed - thanks for the call-out! I’ve posted the text below, but feel free to post any follow-up questions here, and we’ll address them.
@jpthek9 , @JamesLeeNZ : We’re planning on adding “game activation”. The way this will work is that you’ll be able to generate a set of codes for your title, so that you can provide them to users when they purchase your game. They’ll use this code when creating an account in your game, providing access to the service-side functionality (without a code, they’ll be blocked from signing in).
Here’s the post:
Every game deserves a backend. Every game developer deserves one, too. So, effective immediately, PlayFab will give you one for free.
Receipt verification, cross-platform authentication, title and player data — our new Free Tier gives you the key features you need to start securely and flexibly engaging your players. And that’s free as in free. No fees ever. Not after your game is live, not even if it’s a big hit.
Of course, if your game is a big hit, we’re hoping you’ll want to upgrade and use some of our other awesome features, such as virtual currencies, social integration or custom game logic, but that will be totally up to you.
Like most of our product decisions at PlayFab, the idea of the Free Tier came out of discussions with our customers. Time and again, I’d hear from developers that they loved the idea of our service, but were worried they couldn’t afford it — especially successful games that already had a huge number of DAU, but low ARPU.
So, we’re making it simple for everyone. Install PlayFab, stick with the Free Tier features, and you won’t even have to give us a credit card number. It really is that easy.
Included in the Free Tier are the most basic building blocks for a live game: cross-platform authentication, player data storage, catalog management, and receipt verification. With receipt verification you can instantly verify that your players are presenting true receipts from Apple, Google, etc., and that all in-app purchases are real and unique. Cross-platform logins across Steam, Facebook, iOS, and Android mean your players can enjoy your game across multiple devices, and server-side player data means their saved games can travel with them. Finally, server-side title data means you can tune your game after launch and roll out new content without forcing players to update or requiring you to recertify.
We’re proud to be part of the overall trend of making the latest and greatest game development technology available to the widest possible audience. Almost no one builds their game engine from scratch anymore, and we don’t think they should have to build their own backend either. When developers are free from reinventing the wheel, they can focus more time on the game itself, and on building great relationships with their players. As gamers ourselves, we like the sound of that.
You can learn more about the Free Tier at http://playfab.com/freetier or on our Pricing page, or go straight to our full list of all included APIs. We can’t wait to see what you build with it.
1 Like