Changing the Paywall in Single-Player Games

Abstract: Game companies are always looking for more ways to increase consumers and their revenue as well as how consumers purchase games. Several business models have been introduced that this thesis will look at, free-to-play, adding downloadable content to existing games, freemium and premium games. This thesis attempts to provide answers to what business models there are available for game developers and how that would influence the development of the single-player games to lower the point of entry for the consumers.  It will focus on narrative single-player games and will use the business models to try and answer the question. A survey was handed out that investigated the respondent’s reaction to changes for BioShock Infinite developer by Irrational Games. The models were presented and compared to how the respondents reacted to the questions. Together with how companies are releasing games now this thesis came to the conclusion that in order to lower the entry point, the games need to be split and released episodically, together with increased downloadable content that added further playability to the game.