Rematch devs "never considered free-to-play," even if it risked being "dead on arrival," because "the best way to make a commercial success is to just make a very good game"

Rematch might be a competitive multiplayer game, but that doesn't mean it should have been free-to-play, according to its creative director, who says he "never considered" offering his football game up for free.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Pierre Tarno explains that "I never considered free-to-play" as a sales model for Rematch. That's in spite of potential player expectations, which Tarno acknowledged might revolve around the fact that Rematch is "an online game with a competitive edge [so] it should be free to play, otherwise it's dead on arrival."

Tarno, however, disagrees with that assessment, pointing out that "one of the things I love about making games is that there is no secret formula or anything, but the best way - or maybe the only way - to make a commercial success is just to make a very good game."

It does seem that Tarno and his team have delivered on that, since Rematch has amassed more than one million players since its release last week. If it's not already a commercial success, it's definitely on its way there, but that's something that Tarno and developer Sloclap attribute to players' "very discerning" tastes.

"We like challenging gameplay," he says, "and gamers are a very discerning audience. They are often very analytical, very precise in their assessment of mechanics and what worlds, what doesn't, what's balanced, what's not balanced." Those discerning tastes mean that "if you make a game that's good enough, that's unique enough," even if some view it as DOA, Tarno thinks "that's not true. I think that if it's original and solid, plus very reasonably priced, players will get it."

Forget FIFA, Rematch is the most authentic football game I've ever played – right down to the very worst bits about playing IRL.