EA believes that almost all mainstream video games will soon be free-to-play, with a heavy emphasis on microtransactions.

Discussing the future of the industry, Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division Peter Moore said, "I think, ultimately, those microtransactions will be in every game, but the game itself or the access to the game will be free.”

"I think there's an inevitability that happens five years from now, 10 years from now, that, let's call it the client, to use the term, [is free].

"It is no different than… it's free to me to walk into The Gap in my local shopping mall. They don't charge me to walk in there. I can walk into The Gap, enjoy the music, look at the jeans and what have you, but if I want to buy something I have to pay for it."

Moore believes that while the full-price retail model may survive, "the real growth is bringing billions of people into the industry and calling them gamers". For that, he says, freemium is the way forward.

"Hardcore gamers won't like to hear this. They like to circle the wagons around what they believe is something they feel they have helped build - and rightly so," he continued.

"But we have seen, whether it was with the Wii getting mom off the couch to do Wii Sports or whether it was, more recently EA Sports Active, where we get females who love to work out, all the things that social gaming did - Rock Band did it, Guitar Hero did it - all of the things that elevated it from being a dark art of teenage boys usually sequestered in the bedroom - that it was testosterone-filled content that everybody railed against - to where everybody is a gamer… if you can move your index finger and swipe it this way, you're a gamer.

"And that has got to be the way it goes."

Moore’s comment comes shortly after Crytek announced that it will focus development solely on free-to-play games. This is the future, folks. Get your credit cards ready.

[via Kotaku]