Champions Online going “Free-To-Play”
Cryptic Studios’ superhero based MMO, Champions Online, is due to go free-to-play in the first quarter of next year with a beta for current players starting on November 9th.
The free-to-play model will be similar to the model adopted by Sony Online Entertainment for EverQuest II: Extended. The main game is free to play, for as long as you want, but there are certain “premium” options which you will have to pay for. Champions Online’s premium content is set to include Adventure Packs, items, powers and costume pieces.
Champions Online was launched in September 2009 for PC and was due to be released on Xbox 360 at a later date, the development of the latter was confirmed as cancelled in March 2010.
A free-to-play model will certainly help bring players in, John Needham (CEO of Cryptic Studio’s) had this to say: “Transitioning Champions Online to the free-to-play model is a great opportunity to reach a whole new audience of PC gamers that view subscription fees as a barrier to entry. By taking care of our current subscription-based community and welcoming the addition of new players through free-to-play, Champions Online is poised to build upon its success and to establish a new leadership position as the first free-to-play superhero MMO. ”
Still not convinced? Here’s a trailer, just for good measure:
Martin Baker
By day I play video games, test video games or just simply write about them. By night I fight crime on the streets of London as a masked vigilante known only to a select few ... damn SECRET identity. Could never get the hang of that.
I've been writing about video games for about 10 years now, and playing them for even longer, starting off with a Spectrum ZX passed down to me in about 1988. Yes, I used to play games that came on cassettes. Yes, they were AWESOME!
I've been writing for God is a Geek since October 2010 and loving every minute of it, aside from that I write for my own website and work as a video game tester for Testology. So, yeah, I'm pretty much living the life of a gamer, and I don't intend stopping anytime soon thank you very much.
Unless I run out of money, then we might have a problem.
