The free-to-play scene has finally taken off in the west, with titles such as League of Legends and Team Fortress 2 demonstrating the viability of this once scorned business strategy. While PC services such as Steam are already awash with free-to-play games, Microsoft hasn’t been in a hurry to bring the concept to its aging Xbox 360 platform. That’s about to change, with previously announced XBLA exclusive Happy Wars set to launch with this very model according to Play XBLA.
Described by indie developer Toylogic as a “casual multiplayer action game”, the fantasy themed Happy Wars will see players form teams consisting of warriors, mages and clerics, before battling it out for battlefield supremacy. Additional customisation packs will be made available post release, presumable for a small fee. The one significant barrier to participation is that players will need to be Xbox Live Gold Subscribers in order to access the game for ‘free’.
Happy Wars is slated for release in spring.
