EverQuest 2 Goes Free to Play
The unthinkable has happened. On July 27, 2010 SOE announced that a free to play version of EverQuest 2 was on the way. Titled EverQuest 2: Extended, the game servers will be independent from the current subscription based version of EQ2. This means players are satisfied with the current payment method won’t be disturbed. This is very important since Sony has continuously claimed opposition from its current playerbase as an excuse for not going free to play. So what made them crack? My bet is that it was Turbine, another premium MMORPG developer and publisher. Turbine has been much swifter and bolder in its transition to free to play. With Dungeons and Dragons Online going free to play last year and The Lord of the Rings Online scheduled to make the transition later this year, Turbine has left SOE in the dust.
To Sony’s credit, they have been dabbling in the free to play space prior to this announcement. The somewhat deceptively titled Free Realms does indeed allow players free entry to the game. Access to most features, however, requires a subscription. It seems Sony has gotten its feet wet with Free Realms and is now ready to jump in to the free to play, microtransaction supported market. First let’s briefly discuss some of the specifics in EverQuest 2: Extended. There will be a cash shop where players can purchase upgrades, shortcuts, and even powerful equipment. But don’t fret, the most powerful gear will only be available in-game. Free players will have immediate access to the content introduced in the first five (yes 5) EQ2 expansion packs and 3 ‘adventure packs.’ Only four races and eight classes will be initially available, but additional ones can be purchased. Even with this limitation, EQ2 Extended still offers more variation than most free to play MMORPGs.
The open beta for EverQuest 2 Extended starts this month, and will likely draw a big crowd. But it should be remembered that EQ2 is a pretty old game. It was originally released back in 2004. The expansions have added a ton of new content, but it is starting to show its age. It remains to be seen how well this very traditional fantasy MMORPG will compete against so many younger, more agile games. EverQuest 2 was not designed for the attention span of most of today’s gamers. It takes hours, perhaps days to ‘get into.’ At least now gamers will know that their time investment won’t be meaningless. Prior to EverQuest 2 Extended, the game offered a 14 day trial. But playing on a trial always struck me as a waste of time since all my hard work would be gone in two weeks. I’ll definitely be checking the game out in the days ahead and reporting back on how well it holds up in today’s environment.
EverQuest 2: Extended is not just a sign of the direction Sony is heading with its MMORPG division. It’s a sign of where the whole Western MMORPG industry is heading. Up until now many of the giant Western gaming companies like Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts have left the free to play market to Asian (and mostly Korean) developers. That has started to change, and EQ2 going free to play is only the latest sign of that change. Funcom, the company behind Anarchy Online already has Age of Conan released as a free to play game in South Korea. They’re charging the rest of us a monthly subscription because that’s the only method they are familiar with in the West. With Sony, Turbine, and even EA taking the initiative into F2P they no longer have any excuse. What other MMORPGs will go free to play, or at the very least take the Guild Wars / Global Agenda buy-to-play route? It’s hard to say, but what we can say for sure is that the future is free to play. Any company that releases a subscription based MMORPG today is just asking for failure.
By, Erhan Altay
August 27, 2010
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I think EQ2 going free to play is going to make the guys behind Age of Conan and Global Agenda reconsider their own payment models. Even Lineage 2.
August 27, 2010
#1
I think EverQuest II is proof that anything is possible, especially in MMO gaming. They created completely new server just for free players and doing that didn’t ruined the game itself. Age of Conan and Warhammer Online should follow these steps as well, it’ll make game more attractive then usual. I expect Global Agenda will be Free 2 Play eventually, they made it Buy 2 Play which means they are almost desperate. Hope some expansions in EverQuest II will be available in EverQuest 2: Extended.
September 4, 2010
#2
All We need now is for Blizzard to take the F2P model and the P2P Franchise will fall apart, nyeh, free to play FTW!
-Kyle Kuzan
August 27, 2010
#3
hmm i agree, but they should give us little more in the eq class pick like 1 evil race 1 good race and 3 in each class set not 2 but i can deal with what they did and i like enough to play and stick with it
August 27, 2010
#4
While this is a great move to see more and more games going F2P, i am however disappointed that skills have a cap, i believe they are stuck at apprentice for F2P, which is a huge difference from having it at grandmaster. The game is also very buggy for now, perhaps in a bit longer that will be fixed, till then ill stick with my current games.
August 27, 2010
#5
Well i tried everquest 2 the most annoying thing about it is the downloading part.You have to play to download it and cant just sleep for example and let the huge 12 or 13gb client download!!
Also when i was playing i found combat quite buggy and laggy and graphics wise its good but charcters themselves looks a bit bad but thts onlymy personal opinion.
Also as krevra said skills cap is a bit 2 much it basically means tht f2p cant compete with paying customers which is completely wrong if itis really changed to f2p then i suggest they remove the cap or at least make it that u can get to all but grandmaster which could be a little better.
August 27, 2010
#6
played this game 10 min got frustrated with UI it was very unfriendly to new users and I quit… I swear i played over 30 mmorpgs of all sorts and never felt this confused. I remember i couldn’t complete first quest because it wouldn’t let me choose which item i wanted as a reward… btw all the f2p features they offer are horrible… this game is old and phail…my 2 cents
August 28, 2010
#7
EQ2 Extended has one fatal flaw: you cannot access the broker whatsoever short of paying for “Gold”, aka paying the price of the old subscription. No broker in a game as rich in resource-gathering and -selling = no game. I wouldn’t mind it if you could pay a onetime fee to activate the broker on your account, but no, SOE wants you to pay the sub price, so there’s no option for it.
And I just learned that LOTRO F2P will also, short of VIP (again, sub paying), not have any access to the broker/auction house. Again, no broker = no game.
Tragic. The sad part is, all I’m asking for is the ability to buy the parts of the game i’d like to have — which is, I think, the whole point of F2P.
Oh, well. I still have Runes and PWI and… well, a long list of games. Would have been nice to saunter into LOTRO/EQ2 F2P, but since they’re both gimping the game horribly and NOT giving you the option to buy the gimped parts (for me, the broker is obviously a flat requirement), then they won’t be seeing me again.
August 28, 2010
#8
I hear ya, but I suspect that Sony Online Entertainment will loosen the free to play restrictions if people push for it and if they see their playerbase going up. They just need to start advertising it a little bit.
August 28, 2010
#9
Well, I am Lvl 14 now and i love the game. If you don’t like the interface you can configure it by either yourself or with addons (profit is a great one), eventhough this admitedly takes patience and a bit of knowledge. But most games don’t even offer a possibility to do this. Eventhough the game’s graphic is somewhat outdated (it was published 2k4), it still shines compared to the most f2p games currently on the market. I get that people might be a little frustrated by the complexity of the game. But the other side of the coin would be a straightforward grinding game, which most ppl would oppose to play as well. I think EQ2 made quite a good balance here.
Only two cons for me are 1) the demanding system requirements and 2) the focus on PvE (i’m actually rather a PvP player).
By the way, does someone know, what the PvP options on the server freeport are? Will there be a PvP f2p server soon, too?
Greetz
August 28, 2010
#10
I played till like level 10 and was having fun, but popups for subscriptions will plague the f2p user, and also unless they tranfer cs item buyers to the pay account server it will probably still unbalance it. But all in all I had some fun with it, just dissappointed when I could only put my skills to adept
apprentice, adept, expert, master, grandmaster
Yeah Dissapointing.
August 28, 2010
#11
the game itself is fun but the way they push subscriptions on you EVERY hour on the dot is annoying as hell! plus no area or global channels??? for gods sake they should just do the simple thing and give us free players a server to ourselves and let us talk with ooc and the like, fine limit our skills but not to that petty level !! if i could ask SOE one question it would simply be this, do you actually WANT free players? it seems the answer is no.. too bad though the games great
August 28, 2010
#12
I know what you mean. It can get really annoying. I think they’ll realize that by doing that they’re only hurting themselves. Hopefully things will get better.
August 28, 2010
#13
Everquest 2: Extened has got to be the best mmorpg I have everplayed to date. I really enjoy the game…
dare I say it’s better than WoW?
lol…
August 30, 2010
#14
WoW is overrated.
August 29, 2010
#15
It’s a shame that this game had to go free to play to attract more players. It really is an amazing game. The amount of content is just ridiculous. After playing SWG I had a little hiatus from mmorpgs for a while and then ended up buying a copy of WoW and despite not liking WoW at all initially, a month later I gave it another shot and found myself addicted, clueless as to what I was doing, but addicted. Recently I bought EQ2 before the newest expansion was released and was blown away by having missed out on this great game in it’s prime. My main complaint about the game was a lack of lower level players which made the world feel a bit empty. I really hope that making this free to play will encourage players to actually subscribe.
Regarding your statement that: “Any company that releases a subscription based MMORPG today is just asking for failure.”
I have to strongly disagree. The problem isn’t the pay model, it’s the games being rushed to launch with a lack of advertised features or just poor implementation of those features. It’s also a lot deeper than that though. In general the mmorpg community is a disgruntled mess for reasons more numerous than I feel like typing at the moment.
August 29, 2010
#16
i hope the free servers die. the dev dave has done nothing but ruin the game since this snnoucment. they are doing everythign possible to make this game free. the live servers are the way to go, we are allowed everything. but now the devs are starting to put mounts people worked hard for on the marketplace.
its a shame this game had to come to that, the community on the live servers are amazing. please come to the live servers folks, where you can play the auctual game and now some dumb free to play model.
you make me angry remo, i challenge you to an open debate over this issue to explain the side of the liver subscribers and to convince you all to come to the real servers, not the fake dumb free to play servers.
everquest 2 is not free to play, you work hard in everquest 2, the game you are speaking about is evercrap 2. where a few dollars pay for how far you go. plain and simple
August 29, 2010
#17
also the games graphics are the ebst out there by far, how dare you even think to insult the graphics.
August 29, 2010
#18
you know things like this anger me a lot, i love the game, and only see it declining at a fast rate, fasterthan i would like. they are destroying the mmorpg industry
August 29, 2010
#19
@samuel, come to the live servers, let me know if you want a recruit a friend, i will get you started in the game and help you out. let me know
August 29, 2010
#20
@thalog lets hope you and the rest of the free to play gamers leave the servers, so that the game can go back to normal
August 29, 2010
#21
I lol at jesse. yes p2p is better in regards to content and playability, but the extended version is a step forward to becoming fully free 2 play, with that said, its essentially an open beta atm there are plenty of buggy issues etc. and its not fully set up to work yet. i expect that within time the f2p will be just as good as the p2p. for now, im sticking with other f2p until eq2e becomes more developed.
August 29, 2010
#22
i agree Demenisa, and + everything soon becomes F2p sooner or later because somethen biger and better comes out all the time EQ, DDO, LOTR, their all going to f2p and they where big time buyers till a new and better came out and knock them out and it seems their going to f2p. personally i think all mmo should be f2p because i dont get why i should pay to have fun but i played wow for 6 yrs so i cant rly say anything about that >_<
August 29, 2010
#23
lol free users leave jesse? you dont know alot about mmos do you? every game uses a free trial to get players interested, notice how without free players the comunity was dieing off?? now think of it as SOE should and think of turbines D&D online, loadsa free players but a HUGE amount [me included] bought the adventure packs to get new quests, all the free players leave and everquest will soon be shut down period from the declining playerbase, dont think any game is exempt from it, the cronicals of the spellborn died from just what your suggesting jesse and it was a WAY better game. please TRY to think before directing comments at me will you? i dont like shooting people down
August 30, 2010
#24
Oh man, don’t even mention Chronicals of Spellborn! I absolutly loved that game and bad/greedy business has made it so no one will EVER be able to play the game…still ticked about all that crap that happened to that game. As for EQ2E, if SOE doesn’t change many of their restrictions, or at least loosen up on them a bit, I believe they’re going to see a steady drop-off of interested F2P players logging on and spending money. Lets face it, if you want to play the game past the first 20-30 levels. You WILL buy the gold membership, it’s pretty much hopeless otherwise. At that point intelligent people are going to see the hypocracy of it all and realize that between the gold membership and all the micro-transations for the ridiculously good armor to level up in and other cash shop goodies, they’re going to be spending twice as much for the game as the “LIVE” players are for the SAME GAME! The one and only difference between the two servers….LIVE has little to no low level people and that makes people not interested. EQ2E is free to play and is just opening up so it’s being flooded with new/low level players, ontop of that you can spend up to the same amount as LIVE players for powerful armor and CS items to level faster. That’s the only clear-sut difference as the game stands. Once people realize tehy can get the same game with less hassel AND less money over-all a month by going live, they’ll either do that or go back to another F2P. One has to wonder if that’s not SOE’s true intentions in the first place.
August 30, 2010
#25
my problem with the free to play model that is will kill the live servers. people were coming into the game, just slower than they would have liked. they weremaking tons of money off of everquest 2 and thats proven in another expansion coming out in feburary. the game is great on the live servers, and its a shame they had to make some free servers to get people into the game, but the rpoblem is that those servers ar egoing to be like a funnel. all the live players are eventually going to have to go free to play.
the live communtiy doesn’t like that they will have to pay more a month just to get mc armor and higher level spells. you should be able to earn your way through a game, not just buy your way through.
and yes i do believe you should pay to have fun, on average the pay to play mmorpg is cheaper and more cost effective than many other forms of “fun”
going to a theatre= $20-30 depending on food and what not
buying an xbox game= 50-70 depending on the game. sometimes you only get a week out of the game.
so those two example are most expensive than a pay to play. the problem companies are facing are free to play players who are greedy and want everything for free. sort of like a 5 year old who always wants their way.
thats the main reason i don’t want free to play. i want to earn my way through the game, i want to have the armor and the weapons i worked for and not have someone who paid $20 for the same armor i worked weeks on. it ruins the game in my opinion, and it ruins what the everquest franchise has ever stood for
August 30, 2010
#26
Well as I stated in my post before yours. I actually believe with how the EQ2E cash shop and restrictions are set-up, that the opposite of what you’re fearing will possibly happen. People may wise-up and play on the “LIVE” accounts after they see how much money they’re sinking into the EQ2E server once they reach end game, in comparison to what the “LIVE” players are paying. As it stands the EQ2E server allows for people to fork over more cash to GET to the end game, but once there everything must be earned jsut like the other server…so then there becomes the issue of paying more for the same game as I had mentioned. I believe your fears will be set at ease in the coming months when people wise-up.
September 1, 2010
#27
*cough*
…
’bout time ;D
September 4, 2010
#28
This is the most stupid thing i have seen sony do besides mess up SWG. How in the world …people work weeks, months to get there gear….stay up for days doing grinding of instances ..and then they come out with a free server…as if there little cash shop they put in like 2 years ago wasint enough? They could just cut the cost of P2P and put fash insted of a free crapy thing that they might just go completly asian on us. Sony is geting gready like the korean grind based games…and i play pwi and boy do i know….the content of eq2 is emence even though it looks short there are thousends of quests gear, classes and dungeons instances AA not just lvl wich is easyer to get then AA…they have really caped sized EQ2…i love this game…Why not just come out with EQ3 better Graphics, and a way to Craft gear to your liking or something, like how it looks like go out hunting or something and gut an animal, take realistic things and put them into play. Insted of the money grabing QQ baby F2P players who want it fast…make it free to play but dont put a damn Cash shop..think about it people…free to play in the end, ends up being more money…less play…i mean why play a game if your going to buy everything? go outside and spend it on a dinner with someone or your dog for crist sake!
September 10, 2010
#29
Why dont the company’s switch to the guild wars marketing model. Or say the first month of gametime be free, before you had to pay. I mean like the first 720 hours of game time, from the time you log in to being logged off. Otherwise it would be free to download and play*. Also the companies need to stopp making Cd’s for their internet games, I mean whats the point of spending millions of dollars in printing the Cd’s and packing, books etc. when the product is strictly for online use. Only people with online capabilities would be able to play and would have already known about the game if not beta tested it. Seems the marketing should use video on tv and radio media to advertise their games to people without the internet.