Dust 514

THE BUZZ: CCP has announced that PlayStation 3 exclusive Dust 514 will be free to download and play.

There was set to be a $10 to $20 cover charge for the MMOFPS on the PlayStation Network, however this idea has now been scrapped.

“It was a relatively confusing proposition,” executive producer Brandon Laurino told Eurogamer, “and we wanted to make it unambiguous that this is a free-to-play game.”

The team originally planned on turning the cover charge into in-game Aurum credits to be spent in the micro-transaction store. A similar starter pack will probably be on offer at launch but will not be necessary to play.

“It’s very important as we take steps into this topic to unambiguously state that it is not a pay to win game,” Laurino added. “There is no micro-transaction that you can do that gives you an unfair advantage over someone who hasn’t paid anything. It’s the classic micro-transaction dynamic of, ‘I can pay and get this item,’ or, ‘I can invest my time and get this item.’ But neither of those options will give me an unfair advantage over the other.”

“We already have hundreds upon hundreds [of micro-transaction items]. We have a cache of nearly a thousand different things at this point. Whether or not we expose them day-one is something we’re still sorting out. It’s like when you make a TV show: you shoot all the episodes in advance, but you don’t put them all out on the first day of airing, right?”

EGM’s TAKE: The fact that the game will be free to download should interest a lot more players. Now PSN users will download the title just to see what it’s like allowing CCP to reach more users, and maybe even drag a few into its other MMO Eve Online. We feel that going free-to-play was a wise move if it wishes to create a community that can run parallel to Eve.

Is it a good idea going free-to-play? Leave your thoughts below.

Source: Eurogamer