Faeria Goes Back to Buy To Play, Removes Mobile Version
Normally buy to play (B2P) games eventually become free to play, but Faeria has decided to go in reverse. On March 30, the Faeria team made a major announcement. The fantasy card game will go back to a buy to play model while also shutting down its iOS and Android versions.
The lengthy official post lays out a brief history of Faeria and why the team decided to make these hard choices. Of particular note was the difficulty of properly monetizing a free to play title:
First of all, Faeria will be transitioning into a buy-to-play game. While we love the concept of free-to-play, we haven’t been able to find the right balance to make it financially sustainable for Faeria, and making this change will allow us to focus our energy on creating regular high-quality content for the foreseeable future.
It takes a great deal of thought to design a proper free to play model, every aspect of a game has to be designed with monetization in mind. Retrofitting formerly buy to play or subscription games into free to play games is an enormous undertaking, one that the Faeria team decided was not worth pursueing. Instead, they will focus on creating new content and making sure Faeria remains online for as long as possible.
Beyond going back to buy-to-play, Faeria is also shutting down its mobile version for both iOS and Android. The team hasn't ruled out a future mobile game based on the Faeria franchise, but the current version is gone for good.
Pulling our resources away from mobile development for Faeria as it exists, including the time it takes to merely maintain a working version, will give us more of the room we need to making the PC experience as amazing as possible.
The company behind Faeria, Abrakam SA, also revealed that they are working on a new game. These changes were likely made to reduce the man-hours it takes to maintain Faeria so they can focus instead on their new project and on continueing to add new content to Faeria.
Further Reading: Official Announcement
