Josef Fares hates free-to-play, live-service and microtransactions

Fortnite, Halo Infinite, Overwatch 2, presumably the The Last of Us multiplayer game, and so on, all show that some of the biggest publishers and franchises in the world have started to focus even more on free-to-play and live-service games, but some developers can't stand this trend, including the It Takes Two director.

Josef Fares said the following when I asked him what he'd love to change with the games industry today:

"Very simple answer. I really hope we move away from free-to-play and microtransactions as much as possible. Focusing more on core games. I hope we don't tend to go more towards live-service. I really hope we don't listen too much to the shareholders about how we're going to increase our growth, because that will eventually affect the creative aspect of making video games. That is something that scares me a lot because I see and hear a lot of companies going towards these kinds of live-service, microtransactions and so on and so forth. And I think it's very sad. I mean, what a nightmare it would be. It's really sad if more and more went that way. I think we need to understand that there is a huge amount of players that want to play games that are just games. Nothing else. Not just ways of trying to get more money out of you or more growth and stuff. I just hope we focus more on the creative aspect side of it, you know."

What are your thoughts on the matter? As someone that loves games like The Last of Us: Part II, God of War (maybe even Ragnarök if you come back on Thursday;)), Elden Ring, It Takes Two and such, I most definitely agree with Fares even if some free-to-play and live-service games are fun.