Team Fortress 2 – Free-to-play and Meet the Medic!

24 Jun, 2011

Fans across the world sat huddled over their monitors last night in anticipation of the ‘Uber Update’ for Valve’s hugely popular multiplayer shooter ‘Team Fortress 2′. Team Fortress 2 has become to the guinea pig for many of Valve’s experimental concepts, and with as many as 200 updates on the Orange Box class-based shooter, the game has grown in leaps and bounds from it’s original incarnation. However the latest update has now rendered the game entirely free the play on the PC and Mac, and promises that there will be no hidden charges or a bombardment of advertising material to spoil or limit the players experience of the game.

Valve’s Robin Walker spoke with the website Develop as the news was unfolding last night, and claims that the ‘Mann-conomy’ store will now be the sole monetary income taken from players, and the concept of making TF2 free to it’s loyal fans has been very much on the cards since the inclusion of the store in September last year: “The data we got back from that update leads us to believe that TF2 would be more successful as a completely free product.” The creators also promise that the free-to-play status will not affect the regular updates to the ‘Mann-conomy’ store, and players can expect the same high quality of service as before. Walker has commented that the move will enable to the studio to ‘learn more about it’s customers’ and allow them to get closer to fully realising their ‘games as a service’ idea.

The principle driving force behind the move is the simple desire to have as many people play their game as possible, says Walker who maintains that the relationship that Valve hold with their customers is of paramount importance, and that further understanding of their players is key to shaping their games of the future in all aspects. However, they have been quick to remind players not to get their hopes up in terms of this being applied to other games in their back catalogue, stating that according to data collected, the free-to-play dynamic would in inappropriate at this time for other titles. For the full interview with Robin Walker, head over to Develop-Online.net.

In addition to all the free-to-play excitement, fans were also delighted at the long awaited release of ‘Meet the Medic’, the latest edition in well over a year to TF2′s humorous series centered around each of the games class-based characters. This latest offering brings us into the world of the team’s medic with his out there experiments and questionable credentials. All in all, this week has certainly been a triumph for Valve, and to quote the good Doctor himself – That is the sound of progress!

Source: Develop-Online.net, TeamFortress.com