What is "free-to-play"

a. (context of a video game English) That may be played without payment

Free-to-play (F2P) refers to video games which give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying. There are several kinds of free-to-play games, but the most common is based on the freemium software model. For freemium games, users are granted access to a fully functional game, but must pay microtransactions to access additional content. Free-to-play can be contrasted with pay to play, in which payment is required before using a service for the first time.

The model was first popularly used in early massively multiplayer online games targeted towards casual gamers, before finding wider adoption among games released by major video game publishers to combat video game piracy and high system requirements. Without upfront payment, publishers may charge money for in-game items or integrate advertisements into the game.