This is a great idea to get player back into the game. Ubisoft has come up with a genius idea to remove the normal paywall on Far Cry 6 for a weekend, followed by a 70% discount, to get its player base thriving again.
I think we can all agree that Far Cry 6 was a good game by most general standards, but it wasn’t anything special or unique from Ubisoft.
It was a solid addition to the Far Cry franchise that mainly served to cater the hardcore fanbase, keep continuity with the previous games by carrying over the same gameplay mechanics, and keep a relatively similar narrative structure that has made Far Cry one of Ubisoft’s most famous franchises.
So, in other words, Far Cry 6 was a 7.5/10 kind of game that really only gives you 1-3 playthroughs before you get bored and uninstall the thing from your PlayStation, Xbox, or PC…which usually is just in time for the next Far Cry game’s release.
However, unlike every other Far Cry, Ubisoft’s idea to remove the usual one-time paywall surrounding almost all single-player, first-person shooter games in the genre for a limited time is a brilliant marketing and gaming strategy.
First, with the marketing/business side of this move, it’s always a good idea to get the audience thinking they have a “limited time” to buy/play/use something. I don’t know why this is in human nature, but it’s been proven that marketing campaigns with “limited time only” or “X is almost out of stock” type ploys gets people to buy said product more often than ones without the ploy.
Maybe it’s due to the fear of missing out (F.O.M.O) or a desire to get something others won’t have access to in the future, but whatever it might be, humans generally will go for products they find to be rare or “limited”. And that should be the case with Far Cry 6 as many gamers who have not played the game yet will jump at the chance to play it free for a week and see if it is worth buying at a reduced price later.
As for the gaming side of this ploy, such a move will undoubtedly get the player base invested in the game again. Now, providing a “free trial” isn’t new for Ubisoft as the base game came with a free trial on launch day, but allowing players to access all content (without the progress restrictions the free trial imposed) should inspire new and old players to pick up a copy and head back to the island of Yara.
Moreover, all of the content added in the deluxe, gold, and Game of the Year (I’m not sure what outlet awarded it a Game of the Year award, but that’s beside the point) will also be subject to 60-70% off in the following week, allowing players even more access to content that they might not have been able to play at launch.
Therefore, I see this move as a win-win for Ubisoft.
It gets players back into Far Cry 6 and builds up a rapport with the hardcore and causal fanbases as there isn’t a gamer in the world who doesn’t love to play good, quality free games.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Ubisoft) (Official Story Trailer – Far Cry 6 – YouTube)
