It’s official ! AionNA has announced it will go “truly free” to play this spring. This follows the announcement of the AionEU servers becoming free to play this month ( February 2012). Aion US is free to play, read more.
The AionEU server has adopted a tiered ( with restrictions – of course ) free to play plan. Actually, those players with accounts already will see very little change. Only the new players will be hit with the restrictions and, by the looks of them, they are designed to stop annoying bots and RMT. The game will offer limited-day gold packages at several levels that will lift the restrictions and add bonuses. Check out the AionEU plan.
AionNA has taken a different approach making all parts of the game free to play.
Aion : Ascension’s Truly Free business model gives players access to the entire game, including the two major expansions, 3,000+ quests, 30+ instances, 18 zones, three instanced PvP games, pets, classes and key social features like the auction house, chat, trade, crafting, gathering and forums. And with new content from the 3.0 update, which provide several new gameplay systems that Aion fans have been asking for, Aion: Ascension will be one of the most compelling MMOs on the market.
In addition to the new business model and Aion 3.0 content, NCsoft will implement new RMT countermeasures to ensure a safe and secure gaming experience for all of its players. These highly effective, proprietary methods will specifically target fraudulent transactions, bots and spammers and the confiscation of goods that have been acquired through RMT activities so that players can experience a no hassle/no harassment MMO experience.
I can’t help but wonder what these new countermeasures will be. And it will be interesting to see which of the two new business models they do better with. But that is a discussion for another time.
Aion follows the growing list of Pay to Play games moving to the Free to Play model.
- Startrek Online
- Everquest 2
- Gods and Heroes: Rome Riasing
- Lineage II
- Age of Conan
- DC Universe Online
- City of Heroes