DCUO- will be out November 2. Can apply for beta on main site now.

[Amaron]

Free 2 pay meaning "Free to pay even more than you did before" of course.

[Hawkbit]

Not surprising, and I'll finally check it out. 

My hopes:
1.  Station cash is used.
2.  They dump EQ2Xe, and just merge all the F2P stuff onto regular EQ2 servers. 

Because then, I'd actually play Eq2 regularly now that I'd have my high level toons.

[UnSub]

DCUO had to make this move. All its competitors are and the PC servers aren't retaining players.

Some great Smedley quotes in that article:

"We decided 'Let's listen to them'," said John Smedley, SOE president. "I don't know about you, but my credit card statement every month is this amalgam of s*** of MMOs that I'm too lazy to cancel. What we want is to offer people a way to not worry about that."

SOE: Home of the Shit MMO You Don't Have To Pay For.

"In terms of 'Is it a result in a drop in subs' – absolutely not," he said. "This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one."

Server numbers are up because a lot of players are cashing in their free 45 days to check out the Green Lantern expansion, not because they are paying for the game. Also, if F2P was your 'preferred business model', why not launch with it?

So, DCUO launched January 2011 as a sub game and is F2P by October 2011, roughly 8-9 months. Is that a record?

[Lantyssa]

I think FFXIV will forever hold that record... probably a few others, too.

[Cyrrex]

Now that I have a monster gfx card, I've been spending some time with Champs Online, just to give it a fair shake.  It's s decent game for being free, but just barely.

By comparison, depsite its many, many faults, DCUO kicks the ever-loving shit out of CO.  DCUOs biggest problem is that there isn't enough to do to justify a subscription.  But it was a fun game for the content that is there, and it has a way cooler atmosphere than CO could ever have.  It's actually quite enjoyable to play.

In summary, DCUO as F2P?  Fuck yeah.  About time. 

Starting October?

[UnSub]

Yep - end of October, I believe.

Has FFXIV actually gone F2P, or just never charged to play? Does it have RMT somewhere?

[luckton]

Has FFXIV actually gone F2P, or just never charged to play? Does it have RMT somewhere?

It's still not F2P, they're just not charging, though they still require a CC on file for the day they decide the 'throw the switch!' 

No RMT.

[Amaron]

Now that I have a monster gfx card, I've been spending some time with Champs Online, just to give it a fair shake.  It's s decent game for being free, but just barely.

Champs Online is only really fun if you have free form.   It really is a case where it's not very "free" considering that.   DCUO definitely kicks the crap out of it when it comes to quality of content.  It would be really great if F2P lets it kick off and finally have enough cash to get a competent dev team.   Sadly I suspect if it starts doing better SoE will just milk it.

[UnSub]

DCUO is fun for about a weekend, whereas I found that ChampO has a bit more staying power due to its flexibility in character gen. The Archetypes are fine if you don't want to learn the sometimes arcane power combinations required to perform.

The new DCUO F2P offer promises quarterly updates, but given that was a launch promise as well ("free content monthly, then a major update every quarter") it is hardly something to get excited about.

As for the dev team, it will probably be the same people.

However, given that DCUO is 3x more popular on the PS3 than the PC, I expect that is where their focus will be from now on.

[koro]

However, given that DCUO is 3x more popular on the PS3 than the PC, I expect that is where their focus will be from now on.

That strikes me as kind of amusing, since people left the PC version in droves because significant delays in developing content for the PS3 version with the intent of simultaneous updates for both platforms which led to neither platform getting patches or content updates for ages. Those "quarterly updates" started as "monthly updates". It was only after the recent decoupling PC updates from PS3 updates that peoples' opinions of the game started turn turn around a bit. Of course, it's been a bit "too little too late" for that, but I imagine they'll get some PS3 sales out of it.

[Kageru]

Considering they wanted to charge 20+ USD$ for a subscription (in Australia) seeing this game fade brings me pleasure.

[UnSub]

Considering they wanted to charge 20+ USD$ for a subscription (in Australia) seeing this game fade brings me pleasure.

I know. Especially with their, "We've looked into it and the official response is SUCK IT" treatment of complaints.

[Shatter]

Considering they wanted to charge 20+ USD$ for a subscription (in Australia) seeing this game fade brings me pleasure.

I know. Especially with their, "We've looked into it and the official response is SUCK IT" treatment of complaints.

Got to give em credit for their ability to maintain asshole developer status all these years. 

[Ginaz]

It seems 1 Nov. is the date set for the F2P to launch.

http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuopc/posts/list.m?topic_id=35434

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dc-comics-mmo/1210902p1.html

[UnSub]

So, it goes F2P roughly 12 months since it was meant to launch and 10 months since it actually launched.

All for US$50m+.

Don't think F2P will work out well on the PC, but on the PS3 it might easily become a staple title.

[Kageru]

It doesn't really change the central problem that it was desperately short on content.

[UnSub]

True, but it's F2P and if you finish the existing content, it costs nothing to wait around for the next set to appear.

SOE is (of course) promising lots of new content each month, but they did the same thing at launch and failed miserably. MISERably.

Plus Mark Hamill looks like he's finally said goodbye to doing the Joker voice professionally, so SOE now have to find a new VO artist for any new Joker content.

[Amaron]

SOE is (of course) promising lots of new content each month, but they did the same thing at launch and failed miserably. MISERably.

What?  I mean they didn't pull off the once per month thing but they've been popping out content pretty damn fast.   So fast it seems like they really just held stuff back from release.    Putting out content fast isn't actually all that useful when there is so little to begin with though.   Everyone quit after the first month and then the servers were too dead for anyone to bother coming back after any updates.

[UnSub]

They may have picked up a bit of speed at this point, but originally it was stated that new content would come out every month and a major update out every quarter.

Instead the smaller updates came out every 6 - 8 weeks and arguably the Green Lantern content was the only major update that came out in the past 12 months.

As a signifier of this: the DCUO Valentines Day event was at least a week late so missed VD entirely, while the St Patricks Day (March) event came out in April.

Plus the content that came out - one or two new missions, some extra difficulty settings, a few new in-game races (over rooftops, not elves) - wasn't enough to hold players either.

SOE was very clear up front that new content was on its way, but what came out was both delayed and short. So I take the new claims with a touch of salt as well.

[Amaron]

I think calling that a failure is extremely stretching it.   The new content came out at a perfectly acceptable rate.   Two new dungeons every 6-8 weeks is pretty good.   It just wasn't a rate capable of making up for the extreme lack of original content.

[Scold]

Is there a link to their cash shop?  I'm googling and not finding it.

[UnSub]

The new content came out at a perfectly acceptable rate.   

Not when it was said quite a few times by the devs up front that they planned for new content every 30 days, and even when the content was delivered late it was one or two missions for each side (roughly 20 - 30 minutes to complete), and then new difficulty settings for raids and the like, plus raid content that could only be truly finished after several updates (because it was released as Batcave Part 1, Batcave Part 2, etc). DCUO is up to update #5 (and I'm not sure if that also includes the Green Lantern pack that was going to be a paid expansion) where it should be, if launch promises were to be believed, up closer to update #11 or #12.

Yes, DCUO launched with not enough content, but a lot of fans held onto the promise of monthly extra content to fill the gaps. If SOE had delivered great new content month on month (or even great content that players felt was worth the wait) they probably would have retained more players.

Scold, looking around it seems that the cash shop is entirely in-game. There may be an announcement when DCUO goes F2P though that lists what they have.

[Rokal]

I installed this again since it's F2P. I didn't realize picking Batman as your mentor meant you started in Gotham (unless that's new?). I really wish I'd known that back when this launched, as one of my major complaints with the game is that I found it hard to care about idiotic villains like Grodd. Essentially the 6-8 hours I played in Metropolis city were fighting villains I didn't recognize in areas I didn't care about. I never got to the point where I ran out of content because I stopped caring way before then.

I took a look at the cash shop too, and I liked what I saw. Lots of cosmetic gear and fluff items, the Green Lantern power set/missions, and some permanent unlocks for more inventory space etc. It seems like free players can't detach items from mail, which sort of sucks since you get sent quest rewards through mail pretty often, but you can get 'premium' status by spending $5 on stuff in the store or having bought the game, which removes that odd restriction. I can see myself playing this every once in a while now that I don't have to maintain a subscription to it.

[koro]

The Green Lantern stuff is not for free?

I guess the line about players getting "all current content" for free is interpreted a bit funny.

[luckton]

The Green Lantern stuff is not for free?

I guess the line about players getting "all current content" for free is interpreted a bit funny.

The GL stuff was never said to be free, if I recall correctly.  They were gonna charge for that before they announced the F2P move.

That said...

It seems like free players can't detach items from mail, which sort of sucks since you get sent quest rewards through mail pretty often, but you can get 'premium' status by spending $5 on stuff in the store or having bought the game, which removes that odd restriction.

Yeah, fuck you SOE.  You're still not getting this whole "if we make it a nice and enjoyable free 2 play experience, there's a good chance they'll subscribe for the big stuff" concept, are you?  You don't screw with the little shit like mail and quest rewards.

[Rokal]

Well, 'premium' isn't a subscription. It's basically "spend any money on the game and we'll remove the restriction", but it's a pretty stupid restriction to make considering that mail is used for quest rewards very early into the game. You play about 30 minutes into the game before the tutorial brings you to the mailbox and says "wouldn't it be nice if you could loot this armor?" It would have left a bad taste in my mouth if I wasn't already premium from buying the retail box.

[Montague]

Dev post on the DCUO boards said the mail issue wasn't intended and will be hotfixed.

DL'ed the client yesterday, didn't get to play thanks to 16 hour maintenance for the F2p conversion. This game would have to be spectacular for me to pay Sony a dime.

[Minvaren]

Steam has the client available again as of today, FWIW.

[UnSub]

There are only two main zones - Batman and Joker mentees (probably not a word) start in Gotham, everyone else starts in Metropolis.

[Minvaren]

People check out DCUO F2P.

John Smedley, SOE’s President, announced on Twitter this morning that over 120,000 new players have signed up for their action-RPG MMO DC Universe Online on the PC since the game transitioned to free-to-play Tuesday evening. In the same tweet, he announced that the number of concurrent users logged into the game has increased 400% in that same time, and that they’re planning to launch a massive TV and online ad campaign later this month.

Woooooooo!  Go SOE!

Of course it’s not all daisies and roses for players trying to get into the game during this massive spike in activity. Even during non-peak hours, servers are having stability issues and, anecdotally, login queues have thousands of players waiting to get in and play.

Woooooooo!  Go SOE!   

[rk47]

Well, 'premium' isn't a subscription. It's basically "spend any money on the game and we'll remove the restriction", but it's a pretty stupid restriction to make considering that mail is used for quest rewards very early into the game. You play about 30 minutes into the game before the tutorial brings you to the mailbox and says "wouldn't it be nice if you could loot this armor?" It would have left a bad taste in my mouth if I wasn't already premium from buying the retail box.

It's $5. It probably pays for the Steam bandwidth I used to download the client or something. I logged in and liked what I saw. But I rather wait till the traffic dies down. Seeing over 20 heroes scrambling for mob spawns is a little off-putting.

[Furiously]

It kept dropping me back from character creation. After seven tries I gave up.

[rk47]

It did that to me the first time I created a character - I guess server was peaking out like hell. It was fine for a while now. I got a dual pistol guy to level 7 and really loved his animation.
I made a villain and kicked Power Girl's ass...to uh...collect her DNA...

[Soukyan]

The F2P release on Steam today is a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

The US PC servers will be shutting down November 4th 1:20PM PT (10PM CET) for approximately 45 minutes. We apologize for this short notice and hope to bring you more updates shortly.

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Regards,

Danicia

http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuopc/posts/list.m?topic_id=36591

Of course, since it is F2P, nobody can complain about downtime since they didn't spend any money, right?

[UnSub]

A datapoint: when DCUO went F2P, it had 30k active subs.

It's not clear if that includes both the PC and PS3 versions, but I'd suspect so.