Rolando 3 won't appear until it's free

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 February, 2010

In line with ngmoco's new freemium plan.

ngmoco boss Neil Young has said that Rolando 3 won't appear until the company can make it work as a free-to-play game.

"Rolando 2 was right at the point where we decided, 'You know what? We're moving this business to freemium.' So I think none of us were really particularly delighted with the sales performance of Rolando 2," Young told IGN.

The game did "fine", he said, just not "gangbusters".

"When we made the decision to go free-to-play, we said to ourselves, 'Look. If we can't make the game free-to-play, we're not going to release it.' And Rolando 3 as it was envisioned at that time was not a free-to-play product.

"So we've just taken the time to try to figure out how to do that franchise really effectively in free-to-play space," he explained.

The original Rolando was a quite lovely, 8/10-scoring puzzle platformer for the iPhone that combined excellent controls with entertaining challenges and decent length.

The sequel did equally well at review, as we concluded it was a "stronger, more robust game than its forebear". STRONG.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Meho #1 2 years ago

    So 'gangbusters' is officially the 'in' catchphrase for people of wealth and taste in the videogame business? I hope they use it at meetings with their investors, perhaps featured innocently on graphs used to demonstrate the projected sales trajectory of the IP...

  • Emmit_Assassin #2 2 years ago

    I agree, Meho....



    ...AvP review?

  • jonsaan #3 2 years ago

    Nice games, but really not the loco beater they were made out to be.

  • Drone #4 2 years ago

    Keep on rocking in the free world Neil

  • Quak #5 2 years ago

    What's up with all this AvP review nonsense? EG is not the only games-related site on the internet - if they're not supplying you with a particular review or feature, there are plenty of other places to look.

  • andromeda #6 2 years ago

    rock and rolando will never die

  • RobotRocker #7 2 years ago

    ...AvP review?

    My money is on "lol embargo"

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #8 2 years ago

    ngmoco has a shit awful business model - bascially download a gimped version then pay ongoing costs to get the full experience. I want a one-off payment for my games with proper expansions, not this half-arsed 'subscription' model.

    EDIT:
    At the moment it's akin to buying a DVD box set and getting 3 hours to watch it, then having to buy more 'hours' to watch the whole series or to rewatch it. Instead you just want to buy each episode and have them forever.
    Edited by 1 at 19/02/10 @ 12:43

  • Stu #9 2 years ago

    So how do they make money? Do you have to pay for more levels?

  • Banjax #10 2 years ago

    They got lucky with the first game. It was pretty unique when it came out, but the gameplay was more than a little frustrating and not really all that much fun. I played it through to the end but have no need to redo it all again, even with snazzier graphics and a slightly more developed story.

  • insincere_dave #11 2 years ago

    What's with all the Rolando hate? First game was great albeit with some less than accurate controls at times. Planning to buy 2 when done with broken sword.
    Edited by 1 at 20/02/10 @ 12:44

  • lucky_jim #12 2 years ago

    And the prize for loading a single basket with all their eggs goes to ngmoco.

    By which I mean the whole "freemium" thing still smells like a flash in the pan to me. It might be a decent niche, but I think there'll still be room for top-end iPhone games at a fiver or so. Given that Rolando's an established brand in iPhone gaming, I think it would have been perfect for keeping as a flagship, full-price (which on the iPhone means five or six quid) franchise.