The new free-to-play Dungeon Keeper, which is now available on iOS and Android devices, is brimming with paid options in order to make the experience better. The remake of this beloved franchise has quite the aggressive pay model, but EA Mythic senior producer Jeff Skalski told Tab Times that he sees the audience’s nostalgia as the biggest reason for the criticism.
"I think any time you re-make anything that is much beloved and has a great sense of nostalgia for people–be it a game, a movie, or whatever–people are going to be very protective of it. They have fond memories of it. We, as gamers, have our own fond memories of it,” he explained. "Our intention with the mobile version was to give as many people as possible a taste of that original Dungeon Keeper experience, and for some people, that’s not the way they want to re-visit the franchise.”
Skalski argues that everything in the game can be acquired without handing over a single dollar, so it really can’t be labeled a “pay-to-win” product. There are plenty of people participating with the game, which leads him to believe that some of the internet outrage is a bit inflated.
"We’re also seeing a lot of game downloads and in-game engagement so that tells us there is a large group of people who are playing and enjoying the game," Skalski said. "Obviously, this is counter to some of the angry reactions we’ve seen around the internet, so we’re still trying to look at all of these data points."
