Namco Bandai speaks out against the freemium business model

We are not exactly sure why companies decide to randomly come out and speak against certain things but the latest to do so is Namco Bandai. For some particular reason they have come out to speak against the Freemium business model that is currently gaining a lot of momentum on Android.

Namco Bandai are responsible for some classic as well as new games on Android including Flight Control and, of course, Pac-Man. They actually have a fairly decent catalog of games available on Android. It seems as though the freemium business model that is gaining a lot of traction on the Android Market has ruffled a few feathers over at Namco Bandai though and they certainly don't hold back about what they think of freemium-based games.

Speaking at Cloud Gaming Europe, Namco Bandai's senior VP for Europe,  Olivier Comt had this to say:

Free-to-play games can't be high quality.  The business model for smaller, easier titles, is making an expectation to consumers that is whittling away at triple-A development.  We need to put certain value on certain work.  When you're a big company… you can't take risks too quickly, you can't make a change just because there's a fashion for a couple of years; you want to be there in 20 or 30 years." - Namco Bandai's senior VP for Europe,  Olivier Comt

For those of you wondering about the difference between freemium and free-to-play, the freemium business model lets you download a full game for free but requires you to buy extra items, usually in-game currency with real money, in order to full experience the game. Free-to-play on the other hand will let you download the entire full game for free, but offers up specialty items and boosters/power-ups for purchase in-game but are not required to actually play the entire game. Unfortunately a lot of developers blur those lines and now both are considered the same thing.

It is rather interesting to see a company come out in opposition of freemium in a very public way suddenly. It will also be equally interesting to see which company speaks up in defense of the freemium business model, most likely slamming Namco Bandai while doing it, because we know it will happen.

Website Referenced: AndroidGuys