We just killed our free-to-play game

We're a small French indie studio working on Paper Strike, a fast, tactical 3v3 arena game where you cast spells by drawing runes directly on your screen.

Think Warrior Mages blending magic with fast, direct melee combat, on maps that reshape every match. When we started, the plan seemed obvious: free-to-play, on PC and mobile. That's what every big competitive game does, right ?

We just made the decision to completely abandon that approach, and I wanted to share why: partly to get your feedback, partly because I wish someone had explained all of this to us a year ago.

What changed our minds

1. We simply don't have the resources F2P demands. A free-to-play game isn't a business model, it's a machine. You need a player base large enough to convert, continuous content updates, live ops, and a monetization funnel that actually works. All of that costs money we don't have. F2P is a rich studio's game, ironically.

2. Kickstarter doesn't want F2P projects. We're preparing a Kickstarter campaign, and free-to-play games are nearly a dealbreaker on the platform. Backers pay for a game; "you'll get it for free anyway" is a terrible pitch. That alone forced us to rethink everything.

3. Literally everyone advised us against it.bEvery publisher, investor, and dev we met told us the same thing: don't do it. The F2P market is brutally saturated right now, and carving out a place in it as a small studio is nearly impossible.

4. A bad monetization funnel can sink your game. We've seen studios shut down not because their game was bad, but because their microtransaction design was clumsy or too aggressive. When all your revenue depends on that funnel and players reject it, everything collapses.

The new plan

Paid multiplayer on PC, probably launching in Early Access first! Depending on how the game performs, we might switch to F2P later.

If we ever do the mobile version (and the rune-drawing mechanic was honestly designed with touchscreens in mind, so it's tempting), that one will be F2P no matter what. That's simply how the mobile market works.

The biggest advantage for us: a paid game means direct revenue from day one. Cash we can immediately reinvest in development, instead of burning money for months hoping conversion rates eventually save us.

If you're curious what the game actually looks like, there's a free demo on itch.io and you can wishlist it on Steam. We're not asking you to buy anything, just genuinely interested in how this community sees it.

My question for you

For those who have released (or bought) paid indie multiplayer games: what's your take ?

Does an entry price put you off when the player base isn't established yet, or do you actually trust paid games more than F2P these days ?

And has anyone here made the opposite bet and survived ?