Mercenary Kings made its console debut on the PlayStation 4 at the beginning of April, and it has been free to PlayStation Plus subscribers from day one. The co-founder of its developing studio said he doesn't regret the decision to do so.
"The decision was particularly tough because I knew the sales we had during Steam Early Access," Jean-Francois Major of Tribute Games told Gamasutra.
Mercenary Kings, an homage to run-n-gun platformers like Metal Slug, went on Early Access in July 2013. Major didn't foresee the same kind of surge in sales when Mercenary Kings hit the PlayStation Store in April, so he opted for the sure thing — essentially a capped payment (though the game is still for sale to non-PS Plus subscribers) over the potential for more.
"I'm happy we traded a bit of risk for a PS Plus deal," he told Gamasutra. "Maybe we could've done better on our own, but the PS Plus deal was a safe bet."
Major said his studio would "gamble a bit," with its next offering.
Polygon scored Mercenary Kings an 8.5, saying it "may actually do a better job" with the action-RPG formula than the old-school games that inspired it.