Speaking to PC Gamer, Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris said of the decision to take Global Agenda free-to-play: “We have many many more people creating accounts every day, many more people playing concurrently, our revenues are higher than they ever have been before which means we can develop content and put it into the game faster than ever before,” and also: “We now have five times as many interested players every day going through that same experience knowing that it’s free to play and it’s not a demo.”

I suspect this is going to be a story that we hear regularly in the next two years. What will be interesting will be to see who survives, and who fails. As with retail, there’s only going to be so much money available for these games, and it’s hard to judge their long-term appeal, or ultimate lifespan. As f2p competition intensifies, I suspect we might see some parties forced out of the race entirely. Whether Hi-Rez are one of the major contenders is going to be a combination of extending Global Agenda’s life and making Tribes Ascent into a big hit. The competition is going to be fierce, and predict Firefall will be the big player in the shooty-jetpacks arena.