14 DAY TRIAL // CCP and Sony have confirmed that their upcoming Dust 514 online shooter will be a free-to-play experience, meaning any PlayStation 3 owner can try it out without paying a single cent.
Dust 514 is one of the most ambitious upcoming games for the PlayStation 3, delivering an online shooter experience that ties into CCP’s popular EVE Online role playing game.
We’ve already heard quite a lot of things about the game in the last few months, with both the studio and Sony itself promoting it through several screenshots and videos.
Now, after a lengthy period of radio silence, CCP and Sony have arrived with a pretty big announcement, confirming that Dust 514 will be a free-to-play online game.
“This means Dust 514 is the first ever game built from the ground up as a free to play MMOFPS on console, exclusively on the PlayStation 3,” said Brandon Laurino, the game’s executive producer. “Thanks to how Sony has set up the PlayStation Network – and the innovations they have been making on it together with us – Sony’s console platform is the only one able to support this kind of game as a service and business model.”
This decision was heavily influenced by the rise in popularity of free-to-play games both in the Asian markets and in the Western ones.
What’s more, the success of Sony’s DC Universe Online after it went free-to-play was also a sign PS3 owners love saving money on games.
“Just to be totally clear, DUST 514 will be a free to play game, without any cover charge,” Laurino elaborated. “We debated the cover charge idea for a while, kind of as a hybrid between the old business model (having to purchase a game) and this new one (free to play).”
“As we watched the market evolve, gamers choices in free to play games evolve, our own tastes in free to play evolve and developing what’s needed to support it in collaboration with Sony, this just became the obvious way to go – no cover charge, completely free to play. It’s the right time.”
More details about Dust 514 are set to appear later this month, during CCP’s FanFest convention that starts on March 22 in Iceland.