Fri, May 15, 2009 | 19:33 BST
Over one million users flock to Free Realms in 17 days
Sony has announced that over one million users have signed up for its MMO Free Realms during the first 17-days of launch.
In celebration, SOE is rewarding all current Free Realms players with limited edition in-game T-shirt featuring special graphics, a matching pet T-shirt for their four-legged friends, and 200 Station Cash to use toward the purchase of in-game items.
The one-millionth player gets a lifetime membership to the game, a one-of-a-kind in-game astronaut suit, and 10,000 in Station Cash.
“The excitement surrounding Free Realms, and the positive response the game has already received, is overwhelming,” said SOE’s John Smedley. “To achieve this milestone so rapidly speaks to the quality and the fun gameplay experience Free Realms offers to players of all ages.”
Congrats guys.
Press release is below.
FREE REALMSTM SOARS PAST ONE MILLION REGISTRANTS IN 17 DAYS, AN UNPRECEDENTED ACHIEVEMENT FOR A NEW IP
Sony Online Entertainment Celebrates Accomplishment with Lifetime Subscription for Game’s Millionth Registrant and Limited Edition In-Game Item for All Other Players
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – May 15, 2009 – Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) today announced that more than one million unique users have registered for Free Realms™, the free, family-friendly online video game that launched on April 28. To mark this milestone, SOE is rewarding all current Free Realms players with limited edition, in-game T-shirt featuring special graphics. The one-millionth player will also receive a lifetime membership to the game, a one-of-a-kind in-game astronaut suit, and 10,000 Station Cash™.
“The excitement surrounding Free Realms, and the positive response the game has already received, is overwhelming,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “To achieve this milestone so rapidly speaks to the quality and the fun gameplay experience Free Realms offers to players of all ages.”
Along with the limited edition Free Realms T-shirt for their character to wear, 999,999 players will receive a matching pet T-shirt for their four-legged friends, and 200 Station Cash to use toward the purchase of in-game items.
In Free Realms, players can customize their characters, explore, quest, battle monsters, and play a wide variety of minigames in a safe, online environment, packed with stunning visuals, distinctive environments, and social networking capabilities. Players are free to do or be anything: Fight like a ninja, cook a tasty meal, raise a pet, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking site. Also available is the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks available wherever you buy trading cards.
The Free Realms game starter cards and Station Cash cards, which can be used to purchase a membership, in-game items and more, are available at such stores as Target, Best Buy and 7-11.
Free Realms is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up with content descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence. To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.FreeRealms.com.
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Posted in: MMO, PC, Sony
Tags: Free Realms
7 comments
#1
Razor
15/05/09, 7:37 pm
Is this like PSN where everyone has 4 accounts each?
#2
No_PUDding
15/05/09, 7:54 pm
Either way, it’s still pretty impressive to have 250,000 people within 17 days in an MMO.
#3
Aimless
15/05/09, 7:56 pm
Free Realms is secretly really good, actually. So long as you can get over the tween stylings there’s a lot of free entertainment on offer.
I’m not saying it’s for everyone who reads this site, obviously, but it completely nails what it sets out to do.
#4
No_PUDding
15/05/09, 7:57 pm
I was gonna say… To me it looks like utter shit.
#5
Esha
15/05/09, 9:56 pm
It’s actually quite good.
There’s no blood, no spine-mangling 2′ high shoulder-pads, and no boomsticks, but that’s part of why it’s so brilliant.
This is a game for the Ultima Online/Final Fantasy XI/Puzzle Pirates/A Tale in the Desert crowd. It’s fun, it’s silly, it’s social, it has fantastic crafting systems which aren’t dependent on a warrior class, and it just feels very relaxing. It reminds me of UO, where a bunch of miners would conglomerate in a mine, and natter about everyday things as they chipped away at the rock.
In fact, the parallels to UO are startling sometimes. There’s no global chat (pollution), and despite the appearance, it’s quite the thinky game. It also (like UO) allows for completely free exploration of the World, and only the Briar Heart (the last zone of the game) needs to to have a path cleared to it. But get a high-level character to team with you and they can take you through the fortress that blocks the path to the Briar Heart! Every location has a teleporter (again, much like the moongate system of UO) and you’re not restricted in how you move about at all.
So really, anyone who’s been pining for a more social, relaxed, UO-ish kind of game will like this.
It’s not for the Warcraft/uber-raider crowd. Free Realms is, at it’s core, a casual, social game, and thanks to that it doesn’t feel like a second job. But it’s not going to appeal to the people who want a second job either. This isn’t the kind of game for lulz-maniacs to grind their way through.
And frankly, this is the kind of game that makes me happy, and one that I can’t find fault with.
Really, I’d think the only people who’d find this a bit crap are the Warcraft crowd, because of how different of a flavour this (and all UO-like games) present.
It’s like Roguelikes, you’re either going to love them, or you’re going to snort at something that doesn’t have a graphical engine capable of 16x anisotropic filtering and you’re going to go back to killing virtual people with a virtual gun. :p
I urge anyone with an open-mind to look past the surface of Free Realms and give it a go, at least six hours play. It won’t appeal to everyone, but I think it would appeal to anyone who craves something just a litle bit different, a bit special, and with a lot of charm and originality.
#6
endgame
16/05/09, 1:30 pm
i was planning on giving it a go. and i will do that very soon. ty for your thought on the game.
#7
lovemoose
17/05/09, 3:38 pm
Nice commenting Esha. Thanks for taking the time