Happy Wars to spark a freemium rennaissance on Xbox 360 this fall

Does free-to-play on a technicality count? According to GamesIndustry, Microsoft's Xbox 360 will soon get its very first freemium game, meaning players can enjoy the game for free and enhance it with in-game purchases. It's known as Happy Wars, a multiplayer combat game by Japanese developer ToyLogic that looks like a mix of action RPG with cutesy visuals.

But here's the catch: In order to play the game for free, you must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber ... which costs a lovely monthly or annual fee. Just to be clear: While Happy Wars doesn't require an upfront purchase to download and play, it does require that players subscribe to Xbox Live in order to have the opportunity to do so. In short, Happy Wars and any future "free-to-play" games on Xbox 360 will be free as long as you pay to subscribe to Microsoft's online gaming service.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see how games like these fare on Xbox 360, one of the last-standing bastions against the very movement that has taken the PC and mobile gaming world by storm. Will (so-called) free-to-play games eventually take over as the dominant model on high-resolution gaming consoles? One can dream, folks, one can dream.

Are you excited by the prospect of free-to-play games on Xbox 360? What game franchises would you like to see go this route? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.