"Releasing your game for free is the best way to get it exposed to the largest number of people possible" - No it isn't, it's not even close! How many of the Battlefield games were free, or CoD, or Zelda, or Mario? Red Dead Redemption 2 just came out and I'm fairly certain everyone has heard of it, is it free? I'd suggest changing this claim!

"Best way to expose it to the largest audience without spending the marketing budget of a publishing giant"? I think it's safe to say that if you're considering releasing your game for free on itch.io, the kind of tools these enormous games use to draw their mass audiences aren't even on the table for you.

@RyanfaeScotland How many more people would have played these games if they had been free (but still supported with the same advertising budget)?

@RyanfaeScotland It depends on your definition of "best". E.g. "Best" might mean "exposures per dollar spent on marketing". Thus, publishing giants with many $$$ spent on marketing have some statistic (known or unknown) of people exposed / marketing $ spent. A free game has the same statistic... except the "marketing $ spent" is 0 so the function is undefined (the limit as you approach from the right is +infinity, which is the only direction which makes sense in this context, so it would be similarly correct to consider the stat to be +infinity).

The original Xbox was sold at a loss. Now, why would they do that... other than the thousands of dollars I spent on Xbox Crap.

@RyanfaeScotland To make a fair comparison, you have to look at how those games you named would have fared if released for free by such big names, rather than comparing them against indie games. How big of a market share would the next Zelda game get if Nintendo announced that it was being released free, compared to the market share it would get if it was released as a normal pay-game?

In particular, I'm remembering the release of Diablo 3, where Blizzard announced they would give it away free to people who signed up for their new 1yr subscription option for WoW.

All valid points folks, which would improve the answer if they were integrated into it.

"The new game from that guy who created that awesomely addictive web game in 2019" See examples in games such as Canabalt, Super Meat Boy, and any game by The Behemoth (itself co-founded by the creator of Newgrounds). In fact, Newgrounds maintains an entire list of examples.

@CortAmmon but how much would the next Zelda game earn for Nintento if they release it for free? Releasing games for free (microtransactions is not free) is nice if you do not need to pay your developers wages.

@RyanfaeScotland That's not a fair comparison. Imagine selling the most popular newsgrounds game for a full 59.99? I don't think it would fare too well, and certainly not better than what it does right now. A significant portion of the price is used precisely to advertise and increase awareness about these games because they need marketing to actually be successful.

@Kafein - It's not about making a fair comparison. 'Doing X is the best way to achieve Y' is an absolute statement, it leaves no wiggle room, there is no compromise. If it were my answer I would reword it to 'Doing X is the best way to achieve Y given Z' where Z refers to a limited budget but it isn't my answer, its Philipp's answer, so if you have an issue with it take it I suggest taking it up with him. As it stands there is no quantification on his claim so it is perfectly valid to compare small indie games to large triple AAA blockbusters as that is what the claim encompasses.

Please note that no matter how technically correct you may feel your point is, a user on this site is under no obligation to edit their post based on your feedback. If you find you're not getting traction by making the same point again and again, I recommend stopping and posting your own answer if you so desire instead.

I'm making the same point again and again because my last comment that made the point was deleted and I have hence been asked about it again. I know they are under no obligation to do so hence after the initial comment I haven't followed it up, I haven't even added it as a suggested edit because I feel OP is entitled to have their post how they want it.

And no, I won't add an answer as I am not answering the question, I'll use comments as that is what they are for, read here if you need a refresher: gamedev.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/comment "Leave constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post;"

With any luck the move to Chat will resolve that.

Yes, your first comment absolutely accomplished that function. I recommend leaving it there in future - comments aren't a great venue for debating a point. Hopping in a chat room to discuss a topic in more detail often works well if you have more you want to reply to.

Honestly, I have no beef here. I'm just the janitor cleaning up a comment thread that was getting very long without adding new insights about the original question.

Indeed, no issue here either, but please be aware that the only reason I was posting back is that many people were posting to myself, since many of them made the same point (which I'd ignored for the most part) I finally thought I'd address it on the most recent one to stop the same thing being said again.

And yes, I've moved things to Chat myself before when the UI gives me the option and I'd have done it here as well if prompted since my point was made and it was just people addressing me rather than OP

So all good if your good, I'll heed the advice and aim to shut down such comment chains faster in future.

(coughstillthinkIamrightthoughcough) ;)