Gone are the days where you had to buy the latest installment of every game series to stay up to date with your friends and with the latest gaming trends.

Games are evolving. If you’re from a certain generation you’ll have fond memories of the journey home from the store with the latest game in hand, reading every single detail in the instruction booklet, immersing yourself entirely – ready for the experience ahead.

Over time the cases got smaller, the booklets disappeared, and now, there’s no need for disks at all. In 2021, games are now almost entirely online.

Convenience

Now you might say, ‘Isn’t that just easier?’ Well, yes and no.

On one hand, it takes much longer to download an entire game that hasn’t been half copied from a disk, and even PC gamers have to learn how to manage their game libraries due to the large amount of space they take up.

On the other hand, not having to go out and physically buy a game is a plus and pre-orders mean you can download a game in advance, ready to play for when midnight hits on release day.

Both sides have their pros and cons, but free-to-play games eliminate the option of getting a physical copy. That leaves you with having to complete large updates, full game downloads, and more. 

But are they worth it?

Are they?

The short answer is yes. 

Free-to-play games currently dominate the gaming space. Whether they’re battle royales, PVP FPS, or even free to play MMOs, everyone’s playing them.

They offer a gaming experience available to everybody, without any paywalls – an experience you can share with friends too. Most free-to-play games even offer cross-play, so it doesn’t matter if you’re on Playstation and your friend has an Xbox. 

Sure, you might need a day or so to download the latest patch, but the hours of fun you’ll get from a free game are priceless. As long as the companies stay away from the ‘pay-to-win model, you’re onto a winner.

Of course, if you really do enjoy having something in your hands, then there are always physical purchases you can make to stand out from your peers, but they aren’t compulsory and certainly don’t affect gameplay.

In any case, free-to-play games are here to stay, with tens of millions of monthly users they’re going to continue to dominate the space, so you may as well queue that download and get your headset on.