From GI.biz: “For the past decade — ever since free-to-play revenues on mobile app stores soared past the revenues from premium games and kept going — publishers have hunted for ways to mix some of that seemingly magical free-to-play special sauce into their AAA titles.
Some of them went all the way, turning AAA titles outright into free-to-play games — a trend that was especially noticeable in the MMORPG and online multiplayer focused titles of the early 2000s — while the majority of games went for a half-measure, keeping their up-front price tags high but also sprouting in-game item stores and packs of premium currency for players to buy.”
Source: N4G PC Ubisoft's free-to-play turn could be the new normal for big franchises