Rift Going Free to Play

[Spl4sh3r]

I just heard this.
This is the end for me.
Now you can buy gear and gold for $
I am not going to play a pay to win game.

If you even watched the youtube clip you would know they are saying the very best gear you can have you'll have to play to earn.

[Slipmat]

only to lvl 20 it looks like

Nope, starting June 12th, Rift is totally free :

Producer's Letter & Dev Diary - Introducing RIFT Free-to-Play

Good morning,

We have some very big news to announce today - starting June 12, 2013 RIFT will be completely Free-to-Play!

All the content, levels, and features. We're making it a bonus, not a requirement to be a subscriber - now you & all of your friends can enjoy everything RIFT has to offer together, with no barrier to entry.

There is a lot to go over - but we've made it very easy to learn all the details and we'll continue to explore what this change means for you as subscribers (now known as Patrons) and the future of RIFT in the weeks ahead!

No doubt there will be many questions, we're happy to answer as many as we can and have a few events planned to explore the many awesome features and bonuses we have in store.

Please take a few minutes to digest the details and then please feel free to come discuss it with us back here - we'll see you soon!

News & Info

Letter from Bill "Daglar" Fisher, RIFT Creative Director - Introducing RIFT Free-to-Play

RIFT Free-to-Play Webpage & FAQ - www.riftgame.com/free

Q&A Events

Reddit AMA Today, 5/14 @ 10AM Pacific (5PM GMT) - http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA

RIFT Free-to-Play Overview + Q&A Friday, 5/17 @ 1:30PM Pacific (8:30PM GMT) - www.twitch.tv/trionworlds

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-gene...free-play.html

[Rakash]

Pay attention to this detail Rak:

The RIFT Store

We're vastly expanding the in-game RIFT Store, adding mounts, gear, boosts, companion pets, and more.

Important:
RIFT will not become "pay-to-win" with this change. The best items in the game will always have to be earned in Telara!


When they say gear, I'm going to take a stab at one or two (possibly both) things: Leveling gear and wardrobe/cosmetic - which is OK I guess.

I know you won't get the best gear out there.
But now you don't need to grind plat to get your mount.
Not to get proffs up. Nothing
Now all can do is buy plat and you are good to go.
This does ruin a lot.

[Nobleshield]

I'm looking forward to this because I unsubbed recently due to not being able to justify the fee when I wasn't really playing and had issues finding a guild to do the content with. F2P might change that, but I have so many other games on my plate that I want to play right now D:

WTB lottery winnings so I don't have to work and can play MMOs all day :P

[Fencers]

I trust Trion will have an ethical business model for F2P.

F2P was the only path for the game in the current MMO market. Times have changed.

[notorious98]

Hmmmm. Maybe now I'll actually get to level 51....

[Orange Joe]

I think this makes it official

Defiance > rift

[Foto]

Holy shit I can finally try this out!

total game changer xD

[Venziir]

Didn't actually see this coming. Huh.

[RoninaThorstone]

Didn't actually see this coming. Huh.

I wasn't expecting it THIS early.

Either way, I am glad to see them adopt a flexible payment model.
Another AAA mmo to add to the "went F2P" column when arguing that P2P is dead. Bwahaha!

(I trust trion not to pull a swtor.)

[RoninaThorstone]

I am actually going to start playing rift MORE now that I know it's going f2p.

Before, I was concerned that I would have to lose access to my characters if I ever ran out of RAF free months, but now? I plan on leveling my other characters.

[Kelimbror]

I...did not see this coming. I mean my logical nature assumed it was going to happen, but I respected their stance on the model and thought they would stick with their guns. I should have known with the slump of communication and drop of content that they were going F2P.

I honestly don't know how I feel about it. I'm glad because it means I don't have to stop playing, double glad because it seems like it's approaching it with the TERA model, so I can at least feel my prior purchases were of merit. I however don't know what the future holds for the game and I don't forsee the content going back to it's Chocolate level of excellence.

Oh well, as I love the game this is good news as it will bring life and enjoyment back to the game for many people.

[Angel25]

I'm very happy with this decision!

[btf]

ah chrs guys - as i said i dont play it so thanks for the extra info there(i thought rift light was the f2p version for it) - i may actually get it now to have a look, not that i was stingy b4 but im paying for 2 mmo's atm and a third is a bit to much

[Antipathy]

as a F2P model this one seems pretty aces from what we've seen so far. No lockouts, no prevention, Raids, Open World Activities, BG's, dungeons, are accessible to everyone (seems they are not limiting these either)- the main detriment seems to be the SL souls are not available except for SL owners.

[Deleted]

We're going free to play because our players wanted it.

No...

You're going free to play because you're struggling and you need to.

People have no problems paying a sub if the game is good enough.

[Sleepysnik]

Meh not a total surprise, but didn't see it come this soon. Cash shop model will probably determine if I'm done with the game or not. But it kinda sucks when you buy a year worth of subscription and this happens.

[phenox]

I feel bad for the people that play rift... they say you wont be affected ... but you willl! Bye bye nice content! you guys should have stayed with wow

[Slipmat]

Some interesting points and comments from Daglar in this interview :

Massively: Why is it time for RIFT to go free-to-play? Are subscribers dropping? Did the expansion not do well? Does your market research see better profit potential in F2P? Or is it perhaps a combination of the above or something different entirely?

Bill Fisher: We have been seeing feedback on this subject since the inception of the game -- and not in a negative light. We have received all kinds of in-game feedback reports, passionately written emails, and gathered data from exit surveys over the years. This was one of the most requested, if not the most requested, feature from the community.

We know that the business landscape has changed over the years. In the old days you could pay for these sorts of games by the hour. I don't think anyone reading this really wants to go back to those days.

We've had this in the works for quite some time -- and you could see some of the original inkling of this with the RIFT Lite program, which was a smashing success for us. There has certainly been a stigma over the years regarding free-to-play games, but that stigma is going away every day as more top quality games are released with quality F2P models that don't gouge the user but instead provide fun environments and good value.

Did Defiance's launch and business model cause Trion to re-evaluate RIFT's model?

No, the RIFT team has been looking at this sort of model for quite some time.

Former executive producer Scott Hartsman was vocal in his support of the subscription model for RIFT. Did the studio want to go F2P for a while now but was holding back due to Hartsman's leadership?

No one at Trion ever tried to hold us back as we started investigating a free-to-play model for RIFT last year. It's been really positive every step of the way.

The biggest requirement with this change is that we had to come up with a model that fit RIFT and that gave real value to our users when they decided to spend their hard-earned cash. I think what we are offering is pretty amazing.

Free-to-play didn't help RIFT to survive in Korea, and Chinese media reports that it's having a rough time there as well. Is this a worry for the rest of the world, or do you see the Western market as more accommodating for F2P?

We have built a free-to-play model that we feel is great for the users that we know best: the Western market. Our market isn't necessarily any more or less accommodating than others. Doing a conversion like this and doing it right really comes down to knowing your market and how people interact with your game.


So break it down for us: What will the free portion of RIFT's F2P include, and what will be monetized?

All of our content is available completely for free: every quest, every chronicle, every dungeon, every continent, every level, and every raid. You can level to 60 without spending a dime. You can earn the best gear in the game without giving us a credit card. No tricks; no traps.

The RIFT Store will have a variety of boosts available to increase your XP gain or token gain -- but these are just accelerations of things you can already earn. We will also be offering mounts, costumes, treasure boxes, storage space, more role slots, more wardrobe slots, and a slew of services.

We will also have gear for sale. Our guidelines for gear on the store are generally as follows: The best gear in the game must be earned and high-level items on the store must also be available to be earned in-game.

Will there still be a subscription option? Will there be additional incentives to subscribe if so?

We are renaming our subscription option to Patron status. Patrons will receive a variety of benefits including daily boosts they can activate as well as convenience features such as summoning trainers, bankers, guild bankers, and more.

It feels as though RIFT's once-legendary speedy updates have slowed down as of late. What does the near future look like for RIFT's development aside from F2P?

We've been working on Update 2.3: Empyreal Assault alongside our transition to free-to-play. This patch has a ton of content. We are finally unlocking the Dendrome (full of new level 60 quests), as well as adding new dynamic content known as Strongholds, a new Chronicle, a new 10-player Sliver, and even open-world raid bosses.

Getting everything lined up for 2.3 has been quite task. Folks are already starting work on 2.4, which includes two new 20-player raids and much more. In other words, we are still going to be cranking out content! We want to keep adding content and systems to keep the game fresh and keep people interested.

For those not playing RIFT right now, what's the best reason to give this game a shot when it goes free-to-play?

RIFT is hands down the best MMO that you have never played. If you don't want a complete AAA MMO experience for free, then I can't help you

Source: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05...icks-no-traps/

There's also a similar Q&A session on MMORPG

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...F2P-Space.html

[Deleted]

What the hell happened to the game? Im not a player but I always try and keep up with most MMO's and last i heard Trion were doing a great job. Content was coming faster than any other MMO on the market and an expansion was released, did it all go to shit after the expansion?

Also with Trion being a small(ish) company have they taken on too much with trying to run a MMO while also developing Defiance and the other game coming out soon (forget the name)