NCSoft has announced that their original Pay-To-Play MMORPG, Aion will be relaunching as a Free-To-Play title. The entire game will be open to free players, with some limitations such as trading, chatting, poorer rewards from quests, and a few other restrictions. Apart from the limitations, F2P players can do everything else in the game.
There will be three different player statuses depending on the payment model they choose:
- Starter
- Free to play users
- Limited game features
- Veteran
- Former subscribers
- Nearly full game features
- Gold Pack
- Ongoing subscribers
- Full game features with bonuses
It's not the first time that a P2P MMO has gone F2P in the past few years, and I think that going F2P is definitely the way forward in the world of MMOs.
You can sign up for Aion here: http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/free2play/ Image source: http://www.gamefluke.com/f2p-news/aion-going-free-to-play-in-europe-in-february/
It's certainly the way to go if you can't keep the subscribers as it will severely limit the funds for development of the game. Which also means it's probably the start of the end.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I'd much rather a buy to play model like Guild Wars 2.
DeleteI'll have to check it out. Even WoW has gone F2P lately, for the first 20 levels at least.
ReplyDeleteI will play on my veteran acc :)
ReplyDeleteAion is a great game, nice news!
ReplyDeleteInteresting, a lot of MMORPGs that are not as big as WOW or SWTOR have been doing this recently, as it helps boost the number of players and possible subscribers. Good luck to them!
ReplyDeleteGUYS! Please don't play Aion. I payed for this game for two months, and stopped playing after a few days. The grinding is just so mundane and pointless, it's got no lore, and it's so bland.
ReplyDeleteKorean MMORPGS tend to be rather grindy. But I guess some people like the grind.
DeleteHeard about this game, now that it's F2P I guess it's worth checking out, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea about any of this stuff, BUT I'm slowly getting the gist of MMO. Is that an improvement? :)
ReplyDeleteAny progress is an improvement!
DeleteLimited F2P is the only way to stay competitive in the market today as more games come online. If the consumer benefits, it's a good thing.
ReplyDeletenice one, i what to try this thing
ReplyDeleteHaven't played it before, but free is always a good start point for me.
ReplyDeleteWonder how long it'll take until WoW does the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI heard something about that
ReplyDeleteI remember playing it a long time ago
sadly I won't be playing it in the future though
so many other better options
and ME3 is just days away!!!
from the dashboard click the cog and go to old dashboard interface
ReplyDeletethen turn off captcha
you'll get more comments
sounds lovely
ReplyDeletefree to play is a big growing trend. not sure if that's good or not. i guess some games can really only be successful that way
ReplyDeleteHeh, another one! I actually did think that it would not hold as a P2P type of game. Too little good, original stuff in it for that...
ReplyDelete