14 DAY TRIAL // John Smedley, who is the president of Sony Online Entertainment, has announced that the upcoming PlanetSide 2 MMO will adopt the free-to-play business model, allowing interested gamers to experience most of the game universe and mechanics without paying a monthly subscription.
The executive has used the PlanetSide Universe forums to clarify the statements made in an interview for a Chinese MMO site called 17173 and he confirmed the free-to-play model.
He denied reports that PlanetSide 2 will have an in game auction house like that Blizzard is creating for Diablo III, saying that the reports of it were based on a mis-translation.
Smedley spoke about the idea and said, "I said I liked and thought it would help with farmers and that we were doing it years ago with Station Exchange, it has nothing to do with PlanetSide 2 whatsoever.”
He also mentioned that he liked the way League of Legends approached the free-to-play concept which might mean that Sony Online Entertainment is planning to make money from its new MMO by selling continuous access to some of the characters and to some cosmetic options for them.
Players who choose not to pay to play will be able to get access to the same content but through a rotation system.
The Sony executive also announced that PlanetSide 2 will still get a beta stage at some point in late 2011 or early 2012, allowing the development team to get much needed feedback from the player base and see how their ideas are welcomed.
The free-to-play business model is becoming more and more popular in the MMO space because it allows titles that would otherwise struggle to get a solid player base and populate the game world while relying on a minority who pays for extra content for revenue.
PlanetSide 2 currently does not have a launch date.