Namco Bandai exec: "Free-to-play games can't be high quality"

Free to play games are undercutting the value of higher quality premium releases, according to Namco Bandai's senior vice-president for Europe, Oliver Comte.

"Free-to-play games can't be high quality," Comte said at Cloud Gaming Europe, as reported by IndustryGamers.

The executive reportedly argued that the proliferation of free games devalues triple-A development - a position with echoes of Nintendo's anti-smartphone stance.

"We need to put certain value on certain work," he said.

Comte's comments certainly make it sound like Namco Bandai won't be jumping ship to freemium models any time soon.

"When you're a big company, you can't take risks too quickly, you can't make a change just because there's a fashion for a couple of years; you want to be there in 20 or 30 years," he added.