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Nintendo's 3DS launch title Steel Diver will resurface as a free-to-play experience

Diving into the F2P world

Nintendo's 3DS launch title Steel Diver will resurface as a free-to-play experience
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3DS
| Steel Diver

Remember last week? Remember E3?

Well, with all the ruckus around next-gen consoles and dead-exciting game trailers, you may have missed Nintendo's announcement that it is going to start experimenting with F2P.

At that time, all we knew about this forthcoming free-to-play Ninty game was that it wouldn't be a Mario or Pokemon title.

As of now, though, we know the exact identity of this upcoming F2P Nintendo game. Yep, it's gonna be a Steel Diver game.

Taking the plunge

The original Steel Diver was, in fact, a 3DS launch title, but Nintendo's first foray into the F2P space won't just be a lazy freemium-'enhanced' update of the original.

In conversation with IGN, Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto revealed, "There is something we're doing with the Steel Diver idea that I think is going to open things up with that game... It's going to be very fun.

"We're exploring from a perspective of where we can take that from a multiplayer standpoint - it's going to have this four-player battle mode that I think is going to be very interesting".

Tell me more

Yet while the legendary Mario and Zelda creator had a lot to say about the gameplay possibilities of this new F2P Steel Diver title, he didn't go into specifics regarding the implementation of the free-to-play model in this game.

With only a vague 'before April 2014' release date attached to it, no target platforms confirmed, and with a lot of its pricing details apparently undecided, this new Steel Diver experience is anything but set in stone.

We'll keep a close eye on the horizon for any disturbances in the water, mind, because this represents an interesting shift in business tack by The Big N.

Alexander Beech
Alexander Beech
After seven years living in Japan, pocket gaming isn't so much a choice for Alex as it is a way of life. True, he could have woken up at 6am each day to play with friends online in the UK, but he was never a morning person. Instead, he preferred a succession of meaningless encounters with Japanese teenagers. Now, he is hooked.