Thread:Sylvered/@comment-25045164-20150903014006/@comment-1824272-20150904000127

Bandai Namco Games initiated a push into the free-to-play market in 2013. The following were the games developed under their new F2P plan:
 * Ridge Racer Driftopia
 * SOULCALIBUR Lost Swords
 * Tekken Revolution
 * Ace Combat Infinity

The first two had absolutely horrible business practices. For example, if you crashed your car at any point in Driftopia, you had to pay an in-game secondary currency that you had to pay for with real life money or lose the car and all of its modifications permanently. In Lost Swords, if you lost a match, you could pay a similar in-game secondary currency to immediately pick up where you lost and continue the fight to eventually win.

Tekken Revolution and Ace Combat Infinity, thankfully, do not work like those games at all. Imagine if you had to pay 10 Stocked Fuel every time you crashed your aircraft, otherwise lose it and all of its levels and have to purchase it from the start again. I'm serious. Just imagine that. That's what Ridge Racer Driftopia was like, and it was disgusting.

Hilariously, Driftopia and Lost Swords are the two games that did the worst in Bandai Namco's F2P library. I wonder why. SOULCALIBUR Lost Swords will be shutting down in November, only a year and a half after it released in early 2014. Ridge Racer Driftopia was shut down in August 2014, one year after it had released in August 2013.

Ace Combat Infinity, on the other hand, has been downloaded over 2,500,000 times and continues to be downloaded by 10k-30k new people every week. It's making a ton of money and a lot of people are enjoying it with an active userbase that still plays it a year and a half after it released.

Infinity is successfully because it doesn't try to nickle-and-dime you at every corner. Just because you failed a mission or got shot down doesn't mean that much, and the Challenges system is extremely generous with Stocked Fuel.

Lost Swords, just like Driftopia, deserves to die and be forgotten. I'm glad it's shutting down. Tekken Revolution and Infinity can stay.