EverQuest II Will Go Free-to-Play in December

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that its MMO EverQuest II is set to move to a free-to-play business model starting with December, when it will receive the Age of Discovery expansion.

This means that there will be no fee required to download the game client and begin playing.

There will be three membership levels offered to gamers, with Free allowing players to access the game and see most of the content but with some restrictions, Silver making the experience free without any limitations and Gold, which will require a monthly fee, giving the player a number of perks which make the game easier to play and enjoy.

Since 2010 Sony had introduced a Extended version of EverQuest II which created a free-to-play world that was separate from that inhabited by subscribers, which is set to now disappear.

This is the second SOE game to choose the free-to-play model after DC Universe Online made the switch on November 1 and has since then seen impressive increases both in concurrent players and in overall participation.