Tag Archives: free-to-play

What’s the solution to all of life’s problems? Ask someone in the modern gaming industry, and they’ll give you three simple words: free-to-play. Speakers at the GameON finance conference in Toronto, however, see it as less like a cakewalk or taking candy from a baby and more like curing the resulting diabetes.

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With Champions Online going free-to-play on January 25, Cryptic thought this would be the perfect time to post an FAQ regarding the new business model. If you have been playing since launch or just getting started on it, you may want to hit it up.

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Atari and Cryptic announced today that the free-to-play update of Champions Online will become available worldwide on January 25.

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According to a report by research firm Parks Associates, subscription models for online games are on the wane.

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Lord of the Rings Online has been free-to-play since September 10 in the US, but players in Europe have not been as lucky, as the launch of the new model was delayed. Thankfully, the wait is finally over, as Codemasters revealed today the revamp will go live next Tuesday, November 2.

This isn’t the first time a Turbine game has hit a snag in Europe, as the free-to-play model for Dungeon & Dragons Online was also delayed in the region, but finally went free-to-play earlier this year when Turbine took over the servers on the continent.

Thankfully, all issues getting the contractual matters sorted are finalized, and in order to get European players acquainted with some of the changes and additions, we’ve been playing the game and taking a few notes since it launched in the US, and hopefully our summarization will get you excited for some free-to-play goodness.

Not only are there new quests and a lovely new area to explore, but the Harvestmath Festival is also going on at the moment, and while always fun, there’s a new bit of madness to take part in this year: Bilbo’s infamous basement.

In summary, Bilbo was one sick little man.

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Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts announced today Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures has registered one million users just one week after the free-to-play MMO’s launch on September 15.

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Codemasters has delayed the European free-to-play launch of The Lord of the Rings Online in order to better prepare its infrastructure for the massive influx of new and returning players.

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Stop! Don’t lay a finger and/or hammer on that piggy bank! Age of Empires Online, you see, has no need for your nickels and dimes.

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We’re pretty sure the saying doesn’t go, “The best things in life are free – except in some places where they’re not free until a year later.” But here we are anyway.

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Funcom has received a grant for $260,000 from the Norwegian government’s Norsk Film Institutt to aid the development of a free-to-play snowboarding title.

Titled Edge of the World, the PC and Mac game will feature online competitions, social networking access, and trans-media integration.

While a release date has yet to be announced, Funcom plans to use the game to promote Norway’s winter sports.

Sounds like some gnarly online jibbin’ to us.

Via Develop.

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Sony Online’s Free Realms has close to 5 million registered players and the game has only been live since April 28, according to SOE president John Smedley,

During it’s first ten days, the game hit 1 million subscribers and has steadily grown by leaps and bounds each week.

Smedley attributed the popularity and success of the game to the company’s free-to-play business model, with microtransactions.

More through Gamasutra.

Louis Castle, co-founder of EA’s Westwood Studios has left the firm for free-to-play games company InstantAction where he will act as CEO.

InstantAction specializes in third-party 3D browser-based games funded through advertising and micro-transactions.

Castle, who founded Westwood with Brett Sperry in 1985, became general manager of EA’s Blueprint Studios after Westwood was acquired by the publisher in 1998. It’s greatest success came from Command & Conquer series.

Via GI.biz, IndustryGamers.

Battlefield Heroes will release this summer, EA’s confirmed. No date. Just “summer”.

The shooter’s closed beta is ongoing, and just yesterday it was announced that EA had already handed out 75,000 keys.

Didn’t get one? You can still sign up.

To give you further incentive, we have a video posted below.

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Acclaim will be allowing players into the closed beta for The Chronicles of Spellborn today, individuals “hand-picked” from chats, David Perry’s Twitter and a beta tester list.

Tomorrow, another 1,000 accounts will be let in every 12 hours until servers have reached full capacity. Watch for email notifications or notices on your Acclaim account page.

Loads of people have been wanting to try this out, so now’s your chance.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Acclaim boss Dave Perry said at DICE yesterday that single-player games will not be able to compete with online free-to-play games.

The creator of Earthworm Jim told the crowd that “the days of single-player games are numbered,” and added that his company’s focus is “entirely on multiplayer.”

More over on Gamasutra.

DICE producer Patrick Liu wants to reassure fans that the company is not going casual. The Battlefield and Mirror’s Edge developer plans to “continue to do what we are best at”.

Speaking with Videogamer.com, Liu’s comment stems from the fact free-to-play cartoon shooter Battlefield Heroes is aimed at casual PC gamers.

“We are definitely still making PC games, we’ve not forgotten about that”, he said.

“We are not going casual, just because that is the trend. We’re not good at that. It’s not our core focus for the studio.”

Hopefully the worried few will feel a bit better now.

Hellgate London will continue to be published as a free-to-play title by Korean outfit HanbitSoft, the company’s confirmed.

No territories have been specified. Namco has already confirmed it’s to shut the game’s servers down in the West.

HanbitSoft said yesterdav that future updates for Hellgate: London are in the works, with a focus on “strengthening community features”.

The next “large-scale” patch, according to HanbitSoft, will be released “soon,” and will “combine the two game play modes, unifying the split two communities into one.”

More on Gamasutra.

The Twilight Zone has nothing on this horrifying distortion of reality.

Picture, if you will, a world in which a hugely popular MMORPG becomes a far greater behemoth, capturing the hearts and minds of all human beings until only one man remains, alone. How would the MMO in question go about expanding its already formidable girth? By not costing a dime.

This harrowing picture of what could’ve been has been brought to you by Gamasutra, and we’re sighing in relief that it never happened. Apparently World of Warcraft was supposed to be a free-to-play, ad-supported game, but fate dictated otherwise.

Blizzard’s Rob Pardo made this bit of info known at GDC Paris, saying that in the end, market conditions prevented Blizzard’s plans.

That, friends, is what we call dodging a bullet.

By Nathan Grayson