"SAN DIEGO – September 19, 2011 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announced a new free-to-play business model for its popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) game DC Universe Online (DCUO) — where players have the freedom to become legendary fighting alongside DC Comics icons like Superman, Batman and The Joker in an ever-evolving online action adventure that has already logged more than 42 million hours of super-powered gameplay action by players since its launch earlier this year.
Beginning late October, players will be able to download and access DCUO for free on both the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC...
All three levels provide access to the current game, but allow differing tiers of convenience and flexibility. The levels are:
Free: New players will now have 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 many other benefits. Free level players will be able to purchase downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more through microtransactions.
Premium: Any player who has spent at least $5 USD (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. Downloadable adventure packs, additional character slots, and more can be purchased in-game.
Legendary: Maximum features and benefits are included at this level. Loaded with enhanced additional features, Legendary access will be available for a $14.99 USD monthly fee and includes all DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots, the ability to form unrestricted-sized leagues, and many other benefits."
I am pretty excited about this and have always wanted to try out the game. The player-base seems stagnant, but ever since TF2 went free, their numbers increased drastically and I expect it to happen to DCUO as well. I think they are doing this to remain competitive in the MMO scene since many big ones are expected to be released soon or started beta, Diablo 3 and Firefall to name a few.
Any current suggestions or information from current players on what to expect? I've only seen a couple gameplay videos, but the ability to customize your hero looks fun.
sadly, its not real f2p. cause if you dont spend any money you have certain disadvantages. they want/force you to spend money on it. Thats poor. would have loved to play cause i like the setting.
its the same like LOTR. lovely franchise...but their f2p options just suck. imo.
Yeah LayZRR as is every P2P converting to F2P, but I dont think F2P will have any disadvantage through gameplay. They haven't described what "additional benefits" p2p players will get but right now its only additional dungeon/area content and convenience like extra character/inventory slots.
I say give it a try. I am going to, and if I like it...I personally wouldn't mind spending $5 to get upgraded to premium, but doubt I'd go legendary
On September 20 2011 18:47 LayZRR wrote: sadly, its not real f2p. cause if you dont spend any money you have certain disadvantages. they want/force you to spend money on it. Thats poor. would have loved to play cause i like the setting.
its the same like LOTR. lovely franchise...but their f2p options just suck. imo.
They have to charge for something. You can't spend a boatload of money on a game and give it away for free. It's bad for buisness.
I've personally wanted to play DCUO since it was launched, but mixed reviews and the lack of a free trial kept me away (and many others likke me). The move to F2P has me about to download it as soon as I finish with this comment.
I like the way they have it set up, where you are able to play the whole game without paying. I played Lord of the Rings online, and you need to pay every 10 or so levels to unlock more quests (assuming you are not a subscriber). I also really like that they reward you for paying for a few things with their second tier of subscriptions. $5 is nothing, and I am sure many people will be willing to drop that on a game they enjoy playing.
I'm not sure $15 a month will be happening, unless I fall in love with the end game. But, with this move, they have at least five of my dollars where they otherwise would have had none.
I played DCUO during its beta and I enjoyed the leveling experience the first time around. The pace is fast and the game is easy to learn. Gotham and Metropolis looks amazing. But after playing through it once and trying to play another character with a different powerset it was just the same game but hitting different button combos. Though it was only the beta, I hope they added more content for replayability. Unfortunately I never did get to do any end game raiding.
I'm looking forward to the switch to F2P, my nephew and I loved playing this and now we get to play together this time!
On September 20 2011 18:47 LayZRR wrote: sadly, its not real f2p. cause if you dont spend any money you have certain disadvantages. they want/force you to spend money on it. Thats poor. would have loved to play cause i like the setting.
its the same like LOTR. lovely franchise...but their f2p options just suck. imo.
I have to disagree with you. LOTRO has by far the best F2P model out there. I've been playing it off and on for a few years, and I've played countless other MMOs. And since they've gone F2P, I have continued playing it.. and in fact for the past few months I have been playing for free and haven't even noticed. You basically receive item shop points when you subscribe, so that when you unsubscribe you can just buy the content - until you eventually own the entire game.
Even if you never drop a dime, there's enough free content and opportunities to get points in the game that you can continuously progress through it as long as you don't waste your points on stupid cosmetic items/experience potions (which is basically what the store sells other than content) As well as spend some time grinding it out of course. But the way you accumulate points doubles as giving your character permanent buffs as well, so it's not like you're stuck.
The main reason it works is because most people just decide they enjoy the game and subscribe/buy content because they just want to, not because they have to.
As long as they dont sacrifice gameplay for the microtransactions and keep it only cosmetic and areas then I think their f2p transition would be pretty successful. And people who didn't want to buy the initial $50-60 disc + subscription (me) could actually try it out without spending anything...profit?
LOTRO's free to play is the best model I've personally played so far (though I havent played very many f2p games) but you do kind of have to be on a 'premium' account before you get a lot of the perks. That being someone who either spends some amount of money (like $5 or $10 minimum I think) or had a subscription/account before F2P. You can't trade and do a lot of other things before you spend a bit of money to upgrade from a free account to premium.
Once you do however you can feasibly get everything you'd need for a long time in the game by just grinding out deeds (basically achievements)
I think it's a pretty good game if you like LOTR.
DCUO I played in beta and while it was really rough it was pretty fun. i think it will do well as a f2p game
On September 21 2011 01:39 ryerye wrote: But after playing through it once and trying to play another character with a different powerset it was just the same game but hitting different button combos.
That is what I am most worried about.. I hope the skill trees vary a lot within each hero like different classes as a normal MMO would have instead of one whole skill pool for all heroes to pick from.
On September 20 2011 18:47 LayZRR wrote: sadly, its not real f2p. cause if you dont spend any money you have certain disadvantages. they want/force you to spend money on it. Thats poor. would have loved to play cause i like the setting.
its the same like LOTR. lovely franchise...but their f2p options just suck. imo.
it IS free. Most games have to be this way, like LoL with micro transactions, it's the future of MMO's unless they are WoW and can afford to make people pay.
I see nothing wrong, it's free so enjoy it for what it is. I can't complain on something I didn't pay anything for, but bring up balance in SC2 and I'm all over you because I paid for it.
I finally finished downloading it. Just made a character, but now I'm stuck on this loading screen before I get to play. Apparently this thing could last like 10 min or longer. And also others got Wonder Woman or Power Girl as the screen but I get Scarecrow to stare at. FML.
Edit: Actually I just read that if the servers are down you just get stuck at the loading screen. Wow that is lame.
I played it I think I really like it. server crashed once tonight but now its back up and I'm trying to get back into it. I'll give a review in a bit after more time but its pretty good first impression
lol server crashed again
Edit2: This tiem its a little harder can't even get to the login screen. looks like they're feeling the extra load.
Been down for a half hour now NO reply from the server wonder whats up
I played it when it was first released, i remember it being so rough going through many dungeons or whatever that required a group. Nobody knew about role switching, even me when I was a healer. Everyone would just go in as a dps role and just run through everything, not caring about dying. Im gonna give it another go once my friend finish installing it and when the servers stablize
This game is really freaking fun, especially in the PvP server where packs or solo heroes and villains can go fuck with one another. In my first day of the game I've already been a part of some great epic battles as a lvl 6 noob. When I get higher lvls I plan to go fuck with the opposing camps in solo missions. The big downside is that combat and powers are really basic and not creative, but the rest of the game is great. If they add a lot more varied superpowers and stuff this game would probably be the best MMO.
i played it like the whole night and i must say its really good. very straight forward instead of much complexity. not a masterpiece so far, but certainly one of the best, if not the best, f2p game out there.
Played the game when it was F2P - it was a cool game, but ultimately it was buggy with too little variety, the same case for most MMORPGs that launch. It just lacks the polish and clean-ness that makes WOW a much more attractive game in comparison. This was eight months ago or so though, so things may have changed.
Tried it for a little bit. The game seemed more suited to use a controller and not a keyboard/mouse. Maybe I'm just too used to WoW but I didn't really like the UI/controls much.
On September 20 2011 18:47 LayZRR wrote: sadly, its not real f2p. cause if you dont spend any money you have certain disadvantages. they want/force you to spend money on it. Thats poor. would have loved to play cause i like the setting.
its the same like LOTR. lovely franchise...but their f2p options just suck. imo.
The LOTR f2p options is pretty amazing imo. You are basically given content up to level 25, and if you want to go further without spending money you can, but it will be a major grind.
By just spending like 15 dollars once to get VIP status for a month and then premium status for life you can pretty easily play the entire game for just 15 dollars.
Happy to hear about this move over to F2P, I might give it a shot to see if I like it or not.
On November 05 2011 03:53 iNdEMAND wrote: glad this went f2p. Game was fun but I couldnt justify the price.
I feel the same way, bought it when it came out and played for the intial free months. Much like lotro though, when I went backafter it was f2p it was just terrible. I feel the same is gonna happen for dcu. F2P with micro transactions are ruining what games should be about.
awesome!!!! i've always wanted to try this game (seen it played by a few friends) but I 100% refuse to pay monthly subscription fee's for games that i purchase. will DEF be checking this out today. More businesses should be adopting this model, as it brings in SO MANY players, and when they introduce micro-transactions such as buying access to different areas, it will still provide a huge amount of income based on how many MORE people are able to play.
I only hope they don't make it so premium players get access to better items / stats through micro-trans though... that has always and will always ruin good games.
Should we form a TL clan for new players? I'd like to start playing today so if anyone wants to PM me and work out some of the details we can start playing soon
The micro transactions within the game are a larger wallet and more character slots pretty much. It doesnt effect gameplay too much and paying people are not overpowered compared to F2P players. The servers have been sucking a lot thou.
Ice is tank fire is dps gadets is for controler and nature sorc is for healing. I think if I remember sorc is better for evil and nature is better for good.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.gamerreaction.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/dc_universe_online_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
