Free Watch: DC Universe Online

More and more games are going free-to-play (FTP) these days, and following on the heels of Champions Online (which went FTP) earlier this year) and City of Heroes (which recently announced that it too was going FTP), Sony have announced that their superhero MMORPG, DC Universe Online is switching to a FTP business model.

The change will take place in October and players will have access to three tiers of account. The standard free account will allow players to play the game itself but limit them in terms of character, bank, auction and inventory slots. Free accounts are also unable to trade or form Leagues.

The second tier of account is called Premium, which players gain access to by spending $5 or more on the games microtransactions. This tier gives players access to more character/bank/inventory/auction slots as well as gives them access to trading. The last tier is Legendary. Legendary players pay a monthly fee but have access to all the games content right up and have generally more of everything that the previous tiers get, while also receiving the ability to form Leagues.



DC Universe Online recieved mixed but generally positive reviews when it was first released earlier this year, and it will be interesting to see if the change to a free to play model proves successful and helps to expand the game's player base.