It seems that it’s a weekly occurrence now for a previously subscription-based MMO to adopt the free-to-play (F2P) model in some shape or form. Earlier this week, Blizzard announced the first 20 levels of World of Warcraft was now F2P. Today, publisher Funcom has announced that the popular Age of Conan has adopted a hybrid version of the model.
Beginning today, players can now explore the world of Hyboria for free, however, there is also a premium (i.e. costs money) subscription that gives you full access to all the content. The game’s website offers a chart that compares the content of the two models, and as you can see the F2P model has significantly less content, and in fact some features are not even available.
“After 1.4 million copies sold, having experienced fantastic critical acclaim, and still to this day going strong with a large active player base embarking on thousands of daily adventures, there is no doubt that ‘Age of Conan’ has made a significant impact on the online gaming genre,” says Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen. “The great potential provided by the hybrid business model, and with the ever growing interest for free-to-play games, bringing ‘Age of Conan’ into this market is undoubtedly the logical next step for the title.”
Check out the latest trailer for the game:
[youtube]M-zNw7FY00g[/youtube]
Sean started playing video games in infancy. He was not given a choice as much as a directive from his parents to be the best gamer on Earth. Sean was subjected to 10-12 hours of rigorous daily gaming throughout his youth, mastering the most complex video games and dominating online competitions. Sean's symbiotic relationship with video games led to writing about them for various gaming websites, and he is currently involved in sales strategy and analytics at one of the largest video game publishers in the world. Sean's mission is simple: Turn 100% of the human population into gamers, willingly or otherwise.
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