http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png http://kotaku.com/tag/free-to-play http://kotaku.com/tag/free-to-play Closed beta testing for Ghost Recon Online (PC) begins March 5th. Those looking to enlist in Tom Clancy's near-future military warfare can sign up for the beta at the game's official website. More »
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Microsoft's casual take on the PC flight simulator takes to the air on February 29, the free-to-play title supplemented with $20 of downloadable content right out of the gate. why fly just one Hawaiian island when you can fly them all? More »
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With each new clip and screenshot of its indie shooter capturing the hearts and minds of mech lovers around the globe, Adhesive Games further ingratiates its growing fan base with the news that Hawken is coming in December, and it will be free-to-play. More »
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Have you ever wished you could play the first 20 levels of Trion World's massively multiplayer online role-playing game Rift with no time limit at no cost to yourself whatsoever? Damn, that's a very specific wish. Also, you're in luck, as Trion launches Rift Lite, which is exactly what you wanted. More »
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After more than a decade of dedicated fans paying a monthly fee to adventure in the lands of Norrath, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game that got the MMORPG ball rolling back in 1999 is going free-to-play come March. More »
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The most disappointing aspect of Dungeons & Dragons Online was that the game was set in Stormreach instead of the much more popular Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Turbine rectifies that mistake with the first expansion pack for the six-year-old MMO, Menace of the Underdark. More »
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Set your phasers on stupid Trek reference, as Cryptic's Star Trek Online opens its free-to-play docking bay and invites the world inside following a brief subscriber-only period. To see what players get for free, hit up the official Star Trek Online web page. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5876896&view=rss&microfeed=true In preparation for its eventual move to free-to-play, Heatwave Interactive's Romanesque massively multiplayer online game Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising is ditching subscription fees and lowering its initial price to $9.99. Or you could just wait a few months and pay nothing. [Gods & Heroes] More »
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In video game years, Everquest II's like the great grandpa to newer MMOs like The Old Republic or Rift. Launched in 2004, it's got a faithful community that's still questing around on its servers but the game's days of accruing new players month after month seems to have ended a while back. More »
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Last month, EA's "EAsy" division, which runs the free-to-play Battlefield Play 4 Free, elected to lower the damage of paid-for in-game weapon add-ons in the interest of balancing the game. Users were justifiably angry that the in-game items they had bought had been taken away, particularly as they were offered no refund. More »
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With the assumption that BioWare's new subscription-based massively multiplayer online Star Wars role-playing game will one day succumb to the dark side of free-to-play running rampant, commenter Odin believes The Old Republic could flourish under the archaic monthly model in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »
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Need for Speed World introduced its first "premium elite" car and, yeah, based on the sticker price, we'd say it qualifies. The Koenigsegg CCX Elite Edition is on sale in the in-game store for $100. But wait! If you act now, you can get this car for only $75! They'll even throw in a passenger-side floormat (I think.) More »
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So, that enormous data trespass that Korean online powerhouse Nexon revealed last week was bad. Bad enough to be the second-largest such incursion in Korean history. If you think that sounds like there've been some other big security breaches, then you're right. More »
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When EVE Online began selling premium vanity items this summer, everyone lost their minds and rioted. Granted, these were $68 virtual monocles and such, but they didn't offer any kind of performance advantage. Another space-based MMO, Dark Orbit decided to offer a rare spacecraft with a value of €1.000 (roughly $1,300) and found more than 2,000 takers. Willing seller, willing buyer and all that. More »
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The second-largest data breach in South Korea's history compromised the personal information of more than 13 million subscribers to the Nexon MMO MapleStory, but none of those accounts are held outside of Korea, the publisher said Saturday. More »
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We know that DC Universe Online's recent switch from subscription-based MMO to free-to-play added one million subscribers to the game in one week, but what does one million free players mean to the bottom line? How's a 700 percent increase in daily revenue, for starters? More »
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We already know that over 120,000 PC users joined DC Universe Online in 24 hours after the Sony Online Entertainment title went free-to-play, but now the publisher's revealing more about how big the shift has been for them. More »
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Last year EverQuest II dipped its toes in free-to-play waters splitting its services into two separate games: The regular EverQuest II, and the limited free-to-play EverQuest II Extended. Next month the game puts that silliness behind it and dives in head-first. More »
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Today, Gameforge, the German-based publisher of browser-based video games, laid off 100 workers in a restructuring that canceled two games and threatens its biggest property, Star Trek—Infinite Space. More »
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With yesterday's addition to the PlayStation Network and today's flipping of the switch on the PC version, DC Universe Online is now free-to-play. Sony Online Entertainment celebrates with the most exciting trailer you'll see all...oh, nevermind. More »
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People who are fans of words that mean what they're supposed to mean are probably not fans of the rhetorical loophole exploited by the term "free-to-play". More »
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During a live-stream video chat today with the game's developers, D.C. Universe Online's free-to-play debut was set for Nov. 1, which is Tuesday of next week. Originally expected sometime in October, the new freemium model gives everyone two character slots and all game content as a base offering, with expansion packs and extra characters as paid extras. More »
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This past weekend Blizzard revealed Mists of Pandaria, the new Expansion pack for World of Warcraft that introduces a Monk character class and a panda race. This is a story about the other game with Panda Monks. More »
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The real world and the Digital World collide once more (in English!) as Joymax officially launches Digimon Masters, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which 38-year-old game journalists can live out their secret Digimon fantasies. More »
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After more than seven years as the most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online superhero role-playing game, Paragon Studios flips the switch on City of Heroes Freedom, potentially the most popular free-to-play superhero MMO. More »
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The colorful, imaginative online game from the team behind Flickr and the man behind Katamari Damacy goes live today at 1 p.m. eastern. More »
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Though no official release date had been given for the free-to-play MMORTS End of Nations, 2011 had not been ruled out for the game's launch. Developer Trion took that off the table today at the Eurogamer Expo, saying the game will in fact arrive in 2012 and not sooner. More »
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It doesn't matter if you're a starship captain or one of Earth's mightiest heroes; once you go massively multiplayer it's only a matter of time before free-to-play finds you. Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online breaks free of subscription fees next month. More »
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Star Trek: Infinite Space is no Star Trek: Armada, but it is a little reminiscent of the 2000 real-time strategy game. And, hey, it's free! More »
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Late last week it was revealed that Cryptic Studios' massively multiplayer Star Trek Online would be going free-to-play later this year, swapping required subscription fees for an active player base. Today we find out what's free and what'll have players reaching for their gold-pressed latinum. More »
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Star Trek Online, the MMO picked up by new owner Perfect World when it acquired Cryptic Studios back in May, will be taken to a free-to-play format by the end of 2011, says the new ownership. More »
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Bright, colorful, and charming, the massively multiplayer LEGO Universe has attracted droves of players willing to spend $10 a month to experience everything the block-built world has to offer. For everyone else, there's LEGO Universe: Free to Play. More »
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Peteroglyph Games's upcoming real-time strategy MMO End of Nations will be the latest game to hop on the free-to-play train. More »
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I have played Tribes: Ascend. If that statement doesn't make you jealous, provoke salivating, or awaken tense memories of last-minute flag captures that you can physically feel in your shoulders and mousing hand, this probably isn't going to be the article for you. More »
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Free-to-play games on the Xbox 360, which rumor has it is a model Microsoft is exploring, are "inevitable," according to one publisher. A publisher of a free-to-play game waiting to publish on the Xbox 360. More »
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As the first season of competition comes to a close, League of Legends developer Riot Games celebrates by dropping some incredibly impressive player statistics for the free-to-play online action strategy title enjoyed by more than 1.4 million players a day. More »
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Ubisoft knows exactly what North America needs: More free-to-play, micro transaction-fueled, browser-based online empire building sims. The Settlers Online is making its way to North America, with a generic name change to make sure it sounds as unappealing as possible. More »
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We could have had Sackboy for free at one point. Turns out that this was an early suggestion from Sony to the fledgling group of devs that would become Media Molecule, the studio revealed at the Develop 2011 conference. More »
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While season four of the popular Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars officially kicks off this fall, players of Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play online game Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures will be able to play through an epic storyline leading directly to the first episode's opening act. More »
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Nearly two-thirds of all revenue generated from the top 100 games in the Apple App store in June came from people spending cash inside "free" games, according to a recent study. More »
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