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DC Universe Online: Headed for Free to Play
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
According to a new article at IGN, Sony Online Entertainment has announced that DC Universe Online is headed for free to play status. The free iteration of DCUO will be available to both PS3 and PC players and will feature three levels of membership.
Free: Players will have access to Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts, will be able to purchase add ons and premium content, and will be able to make two characters.
Premium: Anyone who has or will spend $5 on the game will be elevated to Premium status and will have more character slots available, higher cash limits and a larger stash.
Legendary: Players purchasing a $14.99 per month subscription will have unlimited access to the game with all premium for free.
Read the full article at PC IGN.
Comments
Like I said in the thread in General Discussion.
No suprise!
It is either this..... or pull the plug!
The game has been dead for months now. The super servers didn't help one single bit.
You can merge as many empty servers as you want. They will still be empty!
Dear Developers,
Instead of acting like a bunch of squabbling politicians in regards to what plan will earn you the most money, try actually making a game that's unique and full of self-sustaining content.
I know that's almost stupid to actually think that people will buy a fun product.
Kinda interesting how CoX went with P2P for years until recent plans for F2P option while DCUO and CO basically crashed and burned in comparison. Huh.
Actually, the super-servers helped out greatly. You can actually queue up for runs now and have them pop in less that an hour.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
cool awlays wanted to try it
,too bad didnt offer a trial for pc 
Its about time.
Hate to admit it, but that is the difference between a well-developed game and 2 under-developed games.
It's my opinion only, but I'd say CoX declined and went F2P simply because of age. The other 2 released with way too little content and had no choice but change or die.
Here's to hoping this will breathe the life into DCUO that it needs to be the game it could have been all along.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
The game will be much more interesting if they incorporate some form of dynamic events, its nothing heroic when the city is constantly crawling with gorillas, monsters and bee-man collecting artifacts, what am I saving for 30 levels? I wonder if previously subbed players will be automatic premium players, since I have spent more than $5 beforehand.
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
This is true. The servers are pretty hopping. Not quite what they were at launch, but it greatly helped find groups. The F2P version should make the open world much more interesting again, I hope. Let's see just what they offer in their store, and as long as it doesn't ruin PVP with purchasable gear, I'll be a happy camper.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
99% of the players in beta told them a sub wouldn't work, in fact the thread about this was the longest thread I saw on the beta forums.
I do however understand that it must have been a hard and humbling decision to go this route, after being convinced for so long that they had a game worth $15/month. This is how things should have been at launch and would have been if SOE hadn't listened to the 1% who told them "the game was awesome, I want to have its baby." Between APB, Global Agenda and now DCU over the last year or so, we've seen the same situation over and over where a small group of fanbois blows smoke up a dev teams bum and ends up leading the game off a cliff. I'm hoping that this game moving to f2p will finally send out the message that just because your game is online, doesn't mean that you're automatically entitled to a sub.
edit-
Now this is a bit less impressive-
"In terms of 'Is it a result in a drop in subs' – absolutely not," he said. "This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one."
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/119/1195161p1.html
Really? So explain the last few months then.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
So, can you play this on both PS3 and PC with the same toon? Or are they seperate servers alltogether?
It's about time. Sorry but superficial mmos like DCUO, CO and STO are not worth a sub. And by superficial I mean weak structured mmo in terms of both world view and content delivery. I mean for pete's sakes these games were always meant for cash shop content streaming (vanity items, exclusive builds/ships, neatly fenced off zones), but I guess they had to milk those early adopters and satisfy their investors before rolling out their main plan.
Now I can give it a try without bothering to commit to it on a monthly basis.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
another potentially great game ruined by smedley... he keeps trying to create these pc/ps3 hybrid games. they always suck. (swg, dcuo) .... its the same NGE dusted off and redone. i dont know how this guy still has a job. he is still trading off his past legend but has done nothing of note in the last decade or 2
www.insomniacsbar.com (my little bar that i own in florida)
Makes me think hmmm wonder what will happen to Vanguard now .
Not surprised at all. Game fell flat on it's face.
Interesting, never tried the game, but after giving CO a go recently (had never tried it before either) I was interested in trying this, was bummed I didn't see a free trial, guess I don't have to be bummed anymore.
Still hate to see any MMO fail to be successful, hopefully they see some success from this change.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
This is the same company that did not update Vangard for a year or so and charged a sub for that entire time. I think it's an image thing. SOE doesn't want to be known as a company that develops 'cheap' games. They want to be known as a company that develops 'Premium' games. How you charge for your product is a part of that image.
I feel I should join others in saying, "I told you so" about DCUO though. The game was cool, but it wasn't worth paying a sub for. I think it could have even been worth the box price (many would disagree) if you didn't have to pay a subscription.
However, if it's Free to Download and get started, I think a LOT of people will join up to play.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
The main difference here is that Vanguard is actually worthy of $15/month. Hell, it's worth $20/month.
I see COUNTLESS people that say "If Vanguard had a bigger population I would go back". Well, if they all actually went back the game would need 20 servers.
I hope VG stays a subbed game. And if they gave it the development attention it deserves I would be willing to pay even more.
SOE cash shops, in particular, make me /shudder
I think I still have the 45 days free thing to use on DCUO from all that botched security nonsense, the game might be worth me dusting off just before it goes F2P and using that as it isn't that bad for logging in once in a while for a quick bit 'o fun, just wasn't worth subbing to. All depends how CoX goes with it's F2P though as that game is one of my old time favourites.
OMFG ALL MMOS F2P EXPECT WARHAMMER ONLINE
Well, this makes me feel worse, for ealier this year >.>
Warhammer Online will be F2P in 2012. I believe I saw an article title on this very site.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.