DC Universe Online going free-to-play

DC Universe Online is the latest MMO to join the free to play craze. Beginning in "late October," Sony Online Entertainment's online action game will be free to download on both PC and PS3.

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DC Universe Online is the latest MMO to join the free-to-play craze. Beginning in "late October," Sony Online Entertainment's online action game will be free to download on both PC and PS3. As with every other F2P game, there will be multiple tiers of membership following the transition.

Free players will be able to get access to "current gameplay," which includes Gotham City, Metropolis, and "all current raids and alerts." You'll be able to create two characters, join a league, and will be able purchase more content, such as DLC expansions and additional character slots.

"When we launched DC Universe Online, we introduced a very different brand of massive online game driven by fast action combat to PC and PS3 gamers and with that, we discovered a new type of online gamer," John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment said in a prepared statement. "We've listened to our community, and we've determined that the free-to-play model is the best fit for DC Universe Online." He then pointed to SOE's experience with their other F2P games, Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures.

There will be two tiers of service beyond Free. "Premium" membership is available to anyone that has spent at least $5 on paid content. Premium members will get additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits. DLC is not included.

Finally, "Legendary" membership will continue to be available for $14.99 a month, and includes all DLC packs "at no cost," more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots, and the ability to create unrestricted-sized leagues, and "many other benefits."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
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    September 19, 2011 8:15 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, DC Universe Online going free to play.

    DC Universe Online is the latest MMO to join the free to play craze. Beginning in "late October," Sony Online Entertainment's online action game will be free to download on both PC and PS3.

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      September 19, 2011 8:41 AM

      Will definitely try this out now.

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      September 19, 2011 8:58 AM

      DCUO was a surprisingly good experience, but it held lost appeal to me after I hit the cap and the free month ended. It's actually a lot of fun for soloing, sort of like Tortage was in early Age of Conan,except the experience spans the whole game. The instances were generally cool, environment prop-weaponry was always a source of laughs, and the character customization, though it could've had more options initially, was robust enough that you kept playing to unlock new armour pieces.

      The villain faction stuff was rad and I will probably be reinstalling the game if only to do some more wall-running and superjumps around Gotham.

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      September 19, 2011 9:09 AM

      neat! this game is really fun if you use a 360 controller and treat it like a brawler.

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      September 19, 2011 1:39 PM

      What does this mean for people that bought the game initially? I bought it on release, but had too much other stuff going on at that point in time to test it properly...
      Do we go in the +5$ group?

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        September 20, 2011 8:12 AM

        Maybe they'll grandfather in the original purchasers of the game. Probably some more details to come

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        September 20, 2011 7:47 PM

        Definitely looks that way.

        If it's decent, I'd still pick up a CE for it :P

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        September 20, 2011 11:43 PM

        Yes that was made clear by the DEVs anyone who bought the game and created an account before it goes FTP and entered the code that come with the game to start their 30 days free time is automatically a premium member.

        Also if you had an active account before the first DLC Fight for the Light went live you got that free and you will retain that even if you stop suscribing and just go with a premuim account once it goes FTP.

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      September 20, 2011 10:41 AM

      Cool. Looks like I need to clear 20GB of space off of my PS3 now …

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