Champions Online goes Free-To-Play

champions

Cryptic Studios’ Superhero MMO will soon join the growing roster of MMOs taking up the F2P business model. This means, starting from next year, anyone can hop on board and fight along with the heroes of Millennium City, and spend as little or as much as they want on the game.

If you currently have a subscription with the game, that will continue and you will become a ‘Gold’ member, and pretty much nothing will change. A free (or ‘Silver’) member will be able to play the game to the full level cap and explore most of the areas, however will be limited in costume and power options, with these being purchasable as via micro-transactions. Adding to the challenge is it is important to source safe sites like Farming Less to prevent scams.  You’ll also only be able to make 2 characters, with a limit on inventory slots and chat options. Some of the restrictions are quite obviously to deter spammers from setting up accounts. Setting up the wifi extender for gaming is your besy option for this way.

The only issue I can see with this would be that any currently subscribing member who chooses to downgrade to Silver will need to ‘convert’ their character. So, this will most likely strip you of any items which are now part of the C-store. Hopefully, before conversion it will give you fair warning of what will be taken.

With many high profile MMOs like Champions Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, going to the Free-2-Play model I can only assume it’s proving to be a financially viable method of running an MMO and I wonder how long until a subscription-only MMO will be a rare thing.

They also say they will be running a beta for the Free-2-Play mode starting 9th November, however there’s no further information on that. If you wish to join in, I suggest keeping a beady eye on the Champions Online site.

F2P FAQ @ Champions Online

Free vs Sub Features @ Champions Online

By Dean Bowes

Founder of the site. Based in Britian I'm primarily a PC gamer, looking to spread my wings to the best the games industry has to offer.