Free-to-play games. The ol’ f2p. “If they’re free to play, then why do they have a store,” I hear my shoulder demon ask, in a poor impression of Jerry Seinfeld’s worst standup.

And yet, stores they have. We take for granted that there’s a place where you can buy soft currency for hard currency, hard currency for real money, and loot crates. After all, that’s where f2p games make their money, and those devs gotta eat. Right?

Well, not exactly.

I mean, sure. The devs have to eat. Nothing against that. But is the store where f2p games make their money? No. And that shouldn’t be surprising.

The primary purpose of the store in a f2p game isn’t to explicitly sell the player anything.

I’ll go one further:

If you’re using your in-game store as though it’s the primary point of commerce in your f2p game, you’re minimizing the odds that you’ll successfully sell anything within your game.

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