Tuesday, July 27

EQII goes F2P




Sony has just announced that its 8 year old title is going F2P.

There will be diferent tiers of membership and the F2P players will start on their own server, that should sooth worries about hordes of noobies invading their game for the veterans. The membership tiers can be found here.


Free players will have limited slots, limited races and professions but will be able to play all the content up until lvl 80. There will be a shop but SoE promises that all items will be available in game, the cash shop will sell conveniance items only.


There's an extended FAQ here.

Makes me wonder about the future of vanguard, will Sony do the same and breathe some new life in to it ?

5 comments:

  1. Not sure I'll play Everquest 2 again, even though it's free to play. Vanguard on the other hand... I might be talked in to.

    There is money to be had in free to play games with a cash shop. Depending on how good the game is (or maybe this isn't even a factor), the cost of a game goes from spread out over time (subscription model) to how much are you willing to spend on it now (cash shop model)? One person in a guild I was in in Runes of Magic was aparently embarrased by how much she spent on the game, so much so she wouldn't be convinced to say.

    I'd be curious to see just how the numbers match up income wise between subscription games and f2p games.

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  2. Yeah would be interesting to see how much money these games earn, account wise then F2P is millions ahead I'm sure. It is easier to spend more on a F2P game unless you're dilligent, they are built like that from the ground up, which for a casual F2P player like me just means short lived play until the inevitable frustrations kick in (grind) which can only be avoided through the cash shop. I've spent about £40 over two F2P games, one I no longer play the other (Atlantica Online) I still dip in to, it's still doesn't feel worthy of more cash outlay but it's an occasional bit of fun.

    If SoE stay true to their word most of the usual downfalls of F2P should be avoided if you don't mind earning it all and are happy within the class/race restrictions.

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  3. Cash shops (or virtual world shopping for that matter) can be a money pit. At one point I noticed I'd spent as much as 4 months worth in subscription money in 4 weeks in SL. I put myself on a budget then :-)

    I'm a little concerned about the possibility that SOE is doing this as much for Server population stimulus as for expected cashshop returns. The F2P servers seem to argue differently but I'm not sure. Maybe they really are just following i Turbine's steps.
    EQ2 while a great game in my opinion has been steadily declining to the point where F2P makes sense to bring in a population influx.
    I'm also interested how this affects Sony Station access?

    Btw, since EQ-2 and WOW launched in the same year, is WOW 8 years old as well :-)
    If memory serves it was 2004 and it's 6 years, not 8.

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  4. I don't have a clue when EQII launched I based that on reading the following in the anouncement "We’ve had over eight years to grow this game, its content and its features, and there’s simply nothing else like it out there.", so I guess they included dev time.

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  5. That's probably it Geek. I believe they started on EQ-2 around 2002.

    In the mean while there's some confusion about the whole EQ-2X scheme. The Gold membership costs as much as EQ-2 Live (RMT enabled) and regular subscription accounts. But you get less... Of course you don't have to buy the latest Game + Expansions pack but still, it seems a bit of a rip off that way as you still have to pay for additional races.

    To be honest after looking over the options I get the feleing the whole setup was designed by people who think in terms of the subscription model who were told to come up with a F2P scheme. There's some good ideas in the cash shop but overall it's not very well conceived in my opinion. If and when I decide to give EQ-2 another go, I'd reawaken my regular EQ-2 account for a month rather than try the free version. Of course I know the game already.

    One side of the scheme appeals to me though. Bronze, and I think Silver don't have access to rare and legendary gear. That simplifies and levels the gear playing field a whole lot.

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