Bleszinski ‘DETERMINED’ to not make BlueStreak pay to win; not sure of microtransaction plan

As revealed yesterday, Boss Key Productions' new game codenamed BlueStreak will be free to play. What does that mean? In all likelihood, microtransactions. After all, something's gotta keep lights to be on. But when asked about the game's business model plans, Boss Key CEO Cliff Bleszinski admitted he hasn't quite figured that part out yet.

"The #1 question that comes up in Free to Play every time. Honest answer: I'm not sure, and it's entirely too easy to tell or make the call," Bleszinski said in a Reddit AMA yesterday.

"Free to Play is one of those genres that means something entirely different depending on the game. For every model that feels like Las Vegas methods (Zynga, Candy Crush) there's folks who do it right, like League of Legends, or WarFrame."

One thing Bleszinski is sure about, though, is that he doesn't want his game to force people to pay to play. He'd rather prefer it be so good that they want to throw money at it.

"I've never shipped a Free to Play game before. That's one of the MANY reasons why we're going with Nexon, they can provide server structures and a global peek into gamers of all types and guide us into a game that's more 'Shut up and take my money' as opposed to 'shaking you down for your hard earned cash.'" he said.

"So we'll experiment, tweak, tune, and most importantly, build a positive community around the game as we develop it."

When asked what about the free to play model attracted him to it, he said the ability for anyone to "just jump in and play," adding that he's "DETERMINED to not do Pay To Win."

"Since this game is a shooter I want that one player who likes the game and doesn't feel like spending any money to be able to take down the trust fund kid that's spent a ton of money to have All The Stuff," Bleszinski said.

Based on the overall impressions I've gotten from reading Bleszinski's AMA, it seems like he's leaning towards a free to play model in which players pay for customizations and various cosmetic options that change your appearance, and not actual items that'll boost your performance in game or provide you with an unfair advantage.