Free to Play – Page 11

Blizzard: Will Not Up WoW's Free Trial

World of Warcraft may still be at the top of the game, but if the past few years are any indication, it is a title that may be lost in the foreseeable future. Since it hit its peak just a couple of years ago, World of Warcraft has seen a substantial loss of players, down to the current level of approximately nine million. Still, this figure doesn’t appear to have frightened the top brass at Blizzard Entertainment.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Blizzard stated that the developer has no plans to increase the current free to play limit. Producer John Lagrave commented that there are special parts of the game that he would rather reserve for paying customers.

“We looked at whether Level 20 would give you a good sense of what our game is, and we think it does. We’ve definitely slid some of the pay-for features into the first 20 Levels,”

Sorry, gamers who for one reason or another are still holding out.

Blizzard: Will Not Up WoW’s Free Trial

“We looked at whether Level 20 would give you a good sense of what our game is, and we think it does. We’ve definitely slid some of the pay-for features into the first 20 Levels,”

Sorry, gamers who for one reason or another are still holding out.

The Old Republic Will Sell Statted Gear, New Planets

If you haven’t heard, The Old Republic will be free to play as of later this fall. Without paying a subscription, players will have access to all of the story content from level 1 to 50, with limited access to other features and no access to the game’s warzones. Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer at Bioware, acknowledges that the transition must be performed with great care:

“I don’t want to unbalance the game by putting things out on the store that somebody can walk in on day one, buy and be the winner. Having said that, there will be some things that we put out in the store that do enhance power value in some way, but not at the top end.”

While the cash shop items have not been finalized, Hickman believes that The Old Republic will sell some form of gear with stats (although not high-end equipment) and possibly future planets, hinting that the level cap may be raised at some point.

The Old Republic Free To Play, Subscriptions Plummeted

Normally when I open an article with “to the surprise of absolutely no one,” I am exaggerating slightly. However, the announcement today that The Old Republic is heading to a free to play model should come as a surprise to absolutely no one with an internet connection and a finger on the pulse of Electronic Arts. Later this fall, The Old Republic will make its transition, allowing players to experience everything* that a galaxy far, far away has to offer. Players will have access to all eight classes, the complete story content, but will be limited in warzone and flashpoints, as well as space missions, travel functionality, and extremely limited access to the galactic trade network.

So why is Bioware suddenly choosing free to play? Well as the announcement puts it:

We feel that flexibility and choice in playing our game is important for all current and future players. For that reason, we began the exploration of expanding the game to include a Free-to-Play option.

Also, at the investor call today, Electronic Arts announced that subscription numbers dropped below one million (from the last reported figure of 1.3 million in May) but “well above” half a million. More specific subscription figures were not made available. Bioware heralded The Old Republic back in December as “one of the greatest and most ambitious achievements in video game history.”

(Source: The Old Republic)

Play The Secret World Free, August 3rd – 6th

If Trion bestows one thing on the world, it should be that your post-launch advertising should be aggressive and essentially ensure you mark every part of your potential customer’s behind with lipstick. Rift pulled this off very well with a wealth of content starting in the weeks after launch combined with regular discounts both in-store and online to where Rift sits now at $5 for a new copy at Gamestop. The Old Republic also attempted this maneuver with a number of weekend passes in an attempt to bring more people into the game who may not have tried it otherwise.

From August 3rd to August 6th, players are invited to try out The Secret World completely free of charge.

Early Access, Inactive Accounts, and Beta Accounts may all join in! If you do not currently have an account for The Secret World, you may register to participate starting today, Friday, July 27th, to have open access to this special celebration weekend!

Funcom has already announced monthly updates to keep The Secret World moving along at a pace that will hopefully ensure players have enough to do for a long time to come.

(Source: Funcom)

Korean TERA Major Server Mergers Coming, Free To Play Possible

Since TERA launched in Korea well before North America and Europe, players have come to see it as sort of a litmus test for the game’s overall performance. Back in June 2011, we reported that TERA was not meeting financial expectations, and the game was forced into a merger bringing the number of servers from 35 down to 15.

Fast forward to today and once again TERA is apparently still hemorrhaging players. In a post on the game’s Korean website, a planned server consolidation will go into effect on June 28th which will target all thirteen remaining servers. When the dust settles, KTERA will only have four servers remaining of the original 37 it launched with.

On July 4th, TERA will launch a test server to gauge the possibility of free to play for the title. The server will be open for four weeks with a level cap of 50, and is quite the indicator that TERA plans on heading free to play (at least in Korea) as a final saving measure. There is so far no word or indication as to TERA’s performance in the west, and whether or not other territories will follow with a similar model.

(Source: KTERA Website)

(Source: Free to Play Announcement)

[Video] Catching Up With Hellgate

Hellgate Global is free to play, but as users have pointed out lately, you’re going to have to do a lot of grinding to get the money to buy content off of the auction house.

Darkfall Client Becomes Free, Subscription Reduced

As we’ve already announced: Aventurine plans on removing the initial cost of Darkfall’s client. Rather, players will simply have to subscribe once their trial is over (or any point in the middle) in order to start enjoying the world. Additionally, Aventurine will be dropping the subscription price from its current point of $15 a month to an undisclosed amount.

All of this goes live on June 29th. Starting June 27th, existing players will be given two free days to return, during which time skill gains will be increased. The promotion runs until the launch of Darkfall 2.0, at which time the game may or may not wipe and may or may not go free to play. Probably not.

(Source: Darkfall Epic Blog)

Free To Play On The Horizon For The Old Republic

The Old Republic was one of the largest MMO releases in 2011, if not the largest. The game shattered EA’s preorder record boasted 1.7 million subscribers in February. However, shortly after launch it became evident that The Old Republic’s was not growing when EA reported a 24% loss in subscribers, down 400,000 in just a month after boasting their 1.7 million. Recently the discussion has turned to servers, with Bioware increasing server capacity and opening limited server transfers for what some believe to be preparation to perform server mergers.

GamesTM recently published an interview with Bioware’s Emmanuel Lusinchi, in which the developer notes that a free to play model is indeed possible.

“The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well. Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on.”

DUST 514 Not Impeded By Sony Certification, Says CCP

Being an MMOFPS, the idea that CCP is releasing DUST 514 on the Playstation 3 understandably has some users worried. How would an ever-expanding and changing world react on a console where updates are notoriously held up in Sony’s certification system? CCP Senior Producer Jon Lander wants you to know that Sony’s certification will not be a problem. In fact, the developer plans on bypassing it entirely.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Jon Lander points out that the game is built with multiple systems in place to allow the addition of new items, or swapping servers around without requiring a client update.

“But if we want to do major client updates to the PS3, then we go through Sony’s usual submission process. But we do have ways of just being able to change other parts of the infrastructure as we need to.”

Additionally, this means that while DUST 514 and Eve Online may exist in the same universe (and servers), Eve Online’s updates also will not affect DUST 514 users.

DUST 514 launches (hopefully) sometime in 2012, although CCP has noted that the game will not launch until the team is satisfied.

(Source: Eurogamer)

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