14 DAY TRIAL // Turbine is saying that it plans to make Dungeons & Dragons Online for the PC free to play via an update that should be announced during this summer. The MMO has until now been subscription-based, with one month of play time costing the gamer no less than 14.95 dollars. The numbers for Dungeons & Dragons Online have not been very good for quite some time so the move makes a lot of sense for the studio.
The change is not yet in effect and will be delivered via the Eberron Unlimited upgrade that is free and will arrive shortly. When it is implemented, players will be able to use something called Turbine Points in order to get extra stuff from the DDO Store. The points can be earned in the game, by playing, but they can also be bought by those who do not have enough time to spend on Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Turbine is also offering a VIP program that is set to allow those who are willing to pay a monthly subscription access to all classes, races, in-game areas and more than one character slot. Those who pay will also get quite a bit of in-game currency. This option will continue to cost 14.95 dollars.
Jim Crowley, who is the president and Chief Executive Officer of Turbine, stated that “Historically, players of free online games were forced to sacrifice the quality of their experience. Those days are over. The new DDO Unlimited is the most innovative, exciting and graphically rich MMO to ever hit the free-to-play market and it changes the very nature of what it means to be free-to-play.”
Ebberon Unlimited is also set to expand the content of Dungeons & Dragons Online, raising the level cap for characters, introducing additional quests and tasks that can be completed. It will be interesting to see how Turbine reacts to the rumor related to a Neverwinter Nights MMO, based on D&D 3.0, that could be in development at Cryptic and Atari.