DC Universe Online goes free to play!

[Servo]

SOE has announced that PlayStation 3 and PC players will soon be able to download and play DC Online Universe for free.

According to IGN, the game will now be split into three tiers, the first, which is free will give new players access to the current gameplay in DC Universe Online (including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts), with the ability to create two characters, join a league and more. Free level players will be able to purchase downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more other items via micro-transactions.

In addition, any player who has spent at least $5 (including former paid subscribers and new players who have purchased $5 of in-game items) will qualify for the Premium access level. Premium level players will have more benefits available to them than the Free level player, including additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits.

Finally there is also a Legendary status, which will give players who pay the $14.99 monthly fee full access. This status includes all DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots and other benefits.

If you’ve already paid for a PC lifetime subscription or a PS3 plan, that deal still stands when this switch happens in late October.

“We decided ‘Let’s listen to them’,” said Lorin Jameson, SOE executive producer to IGN, “I don’t know about you, but my credit card statement every month is this amalgam of s*** of MMOs that I’m too lazy to cancel. What we want is to offer people a way to not worry about that.

“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.”

I didn't end up purchasing the game myself, mostly because the beta I was involved in last year ended up taking up a scary amount of my time, but I also didn't want to shell out for a subscription at the time it was released. Looks like I'll be caving and saying goodbye to my social life when this takes effect.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

SOE has announced that PlayStation 3 and PC players will soon be able to download and play DC Online Universe for free.

According to IGN, the game will now be split into three tiers, the first, which is free will give new players access to the current gameplay in DC Universe Online (including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts), with the ability to create two characters, join a league and more. Free level players will be able to purchase downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more other items via micro-transactions.

In addition, any player who has spent at least $5 (including former paid subscribers and new players who have purchased $5 of in-game items) will qualify for the Premium access level. Premium level players will have more benefits available to them than the Free level player, including additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits.

Finally there is also a Legendary status, which will give players who pay the $14.99 monthly fee full access. This status includes all DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots and other benefits.

If you’ve already paid for a PC lifetime subscription or a PS3 plan, that deal still stands when this switch happens in late October.

“We decided ‘Let’s listen to them’,” said Lorin Jameson, SOE executive producer to IGN, “I don’t know about you, but my credit card statement every month is this amalgam of s*** of MMOs that I’m too lazy to cancel. What we want is to offer people a way to not worry about that.

“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.”

I didn't end up purchasing the game myself, mostly because the beta I was involved in last year ended up taking up a scary amount of my time, but I also didn't want to shell out for a subscription at the time it was released. Looks like I'll be caving and saying goodbye to my social life when this takes effect.

Well now I'm going to try this game

Also does the at leat $5 thing count buying the game in a store?

 

[Servo]

Well now I'm going to try this game

Also does the at leat $5 thing count buying the game in a store?

Not sure about that, but it should be worth noting that the game will not only be free to play, but also free to download off PSN. Assuming you have enough space on your HDD, it might be worth waiting a month and getting the game for free.

 

[Chaos Descending]

This part made me go and at the same time!

“We decided ‘Let’s listen to them’,” said Lorin Jameson, SOE executive producer to IGN, “I don’t know about you, but my credit card statement every month is this amalgam of s*** of MMOs that I’m too lazy to cancel. What we want is to offer people a way to not worry about that."

Wow, it must be nice to have so much cash that you're not worried about a bunch of recurring $15 charges every month just because you're "too lazy to cancel" your subscriptions to several "s*** MMOs"!!!!

 

[Gryffindorian]

I thought about getting this game when it first came out but got dissuaded thinking it wouldn't be much different from City of Heroes/City of Villains, which I've played up until recently. CoH probably has the most intuitive user interface I've seen (compared to others I've tried WoW, LotRo, ST: Online). A work acquaintance says he enjoys playing this game, so I might give it a try.

 

[Herbert1]

Is "free" play interrupted by advertising or is advertising integrated somehow in the game content?

 

[sojourner]

^Not in most FTP MMOs. The game is supported by micro-transactions. Meaning they nickel and dime you to death for all the good stuff.

 

[Servo]

^Not in most FTP MMOs. The game is supported by micro-transactions. Meaning they nickel and dime you to death for all the good stuff.

I'll admit I'm not too experienced in the world of MMOs, but micro-transactions seem like a more attractive prospect than a monthly subscription, 'cause at least now I'll get to choose how much time and money I want to invest in the game. If I was paying a monthly subscription, I'd feel like I'd need to be playing it all the time just to get my money's worth.

 

[sojourner]

^But with micro-transactions it sucks when other players have an advantage because they have a deeper wallet.

 

[judge alba]

so is dc universe the same as champions on line? what is the differance?

just wondering as i may try this game out myself.

 

[Servo]

^But with micro-transactions it sucks when other players have an advantage because they have a deeper wallet.

That's only a problem in PvP. In the beta, I stuck to the PvE missions, which I enjoyed a lot more, so I reckon I'll be doing that again, at least to start with. Then again, I don't have a mortgage, kids or a car, so I'm probably one of those people with a deeper wallet.

 

[Winterwind]

I don't read comics or pay much attention to super hero characters and MMOs aren't my thing but a friend of mine is one of the developers and it's been a few years since I've played anything he's worked on so... I just might check it out. Besides, once I play through the last New Vegas DLC I'll need something new and fresh. The price is certainly right.

Mind you the price was right for inFamous with Sony's welcome back offer and I lost interest quite quickly there.

 

[Servo]

Thinking about it, I can get DCUO pre-owned for £12.99, and a 30-day sub for £9.99. For the sake of £23, I might just pick up a copy now, and then when it goes FTP in October I'll get the Premium level access.

 

[Servo]

This DCUO webcast video answers some questions about the FTP switchover, including things like subscription tiers, cash limits and future DLC.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zllSnHdEkl4&feature=player_embedded[/yt]

I picked up a pre-owned copy of the game yesterday and got a 30-day sub for it. Played for a few hours last night and got up to level 5. It's just as much fun as I remember it being, but without the bugs that the beta had.

 

[COMYYY]

Great news. I will join it.

 

[JD]

I'm planning on checking this out. Does anyone know the exact date? All I can find is October, which starts tomorrow, so does that mean it goes free tomorrow?

 

[PsychoPere]

What I've seen regarding the F2P move has said "by late October," so I'd expect a big announcement when the patch establishing the F2P model goes live.

 

[Servo]

Details from tonights DCUO webcast about the F2P transition...

FREE TO PLAY WILL GO LIVE ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 1ST 2011.

There will be notes regarding the Free to Play transition and server updates in the Announcement section of the official DCUO forums later this week.

As announced, there are three levels of subscription: Free, Premium, and Legendary. All current players will be Legendary subscribers as of Tuesday, previous subscribers who come back will be Premium unless they re-sub, and all new players will be Free. To upgrade to premium, a player would need to purchase a minimum of $5.00 out of the marketplace or spend 500 Station Cash (if playing the PC version). Once this is done, the subscription benefit will happen automatically. The same will happen if the player subscribes to the Legendary plan.

Free to play subscribers do not get Fight for the Light and will have to buy the DLC in order access that content or the Hard Light character set. This would, of course, push those players into the Premium subscription tier.

Additional character slots, inventory slots, bank slots, and auction house slots have been priced:
- additional character slots $4.99 (500 SC)
- additional inventory slots $3.99 (400 SC) per row of 7.
- additional bank slots $2.99 (300 SC) per row of 5 or 7.
- additional auction slots $.99 (100 SC) per 5 additional entries.

These are all permanent to the account (for each character on the account).

There are also additional Escrow adds available however these costs are only on a per character basis. Not all the characters in a given account will have access; only the one you've purchased the escrow addition for will have access to that benefit.

The game installation from download will be the same as it is now. Roughly 15-16 GB of total installation space on your PS3 hard drive will be necessary. Spytle suggested that you have at least 20GB available before you begin the download / installation. Also, as discussed before, the Blu-Ray and downloadable versions of the game are different SKU's and so anyone looking to switch to the downloaded version will need to uninstall the game and then download the new client otherwise you will be able to pick up and play as normal.

There are no additional benefits for Legendary subscribers at this time although it has been stated that other things are being considered and will be rolled out as they are figured out. There will be no re-spec tokens available at the launch of F2P as the developers are looking to avoid the "Flavor of the Month" impact that was viewed when Hard Light powers were introduced into the game. It is something they are hoping to bring out at some point but they want to make sure there is balance when it does happen.

PvP queing and Cross-Faction queuing are being looked at very seriously as solutions for the queue times for alerts, PvP, and raids. This is mostly a UI (user interface) issue they are hoping to address and they are looking at a number of different options and combinations of solutions discussed via the forums by players of the game. This is something they want to make sure they get right so the developers are not rushing to get a solution in place that might unbalance or otherwise disrupt other parts of the game experience.

There were no other announcements regarding other content or fixes. This webcast was only to address the Free to Play set-up. An additional TweetCast discussion will be held on Thursday, November 3rd @ 4:30PM PST where the video from this webcast will be screened and then additional questions and feedback will be openly discussed. To submit questions regarding F2P via twitter, send to @DCUO with the hashtag #DCUOF2P.

I cut and paste this info from the official boards, so thanks to Physique for summarising everything nicely into one post.

 

[BlackFire3]

i was kinda wondering if DC comic ever thought to look at the game for new character inspirations for new comics

 

[Reverend]

^Sounds like a legal rights nightmare, so no. Even if it wasn't, I doubt any comic book publisher would "buy" a character based on some fan costume design. They pay their writers and design artists for that kind of thing.