Wildstar Announces Free-to-Play

The science fiction MMO Wildstar will be going free to play this fall, the Wildstar team revealed today with an announcement video.

The move had been heavily rumored for some time given Wildstar's rocky start since the game launched last year. Since then, the game has struggled to maintain subscribers for the retail price of $59.99 and a monthly subscription of $14.99.

The team behind Wildstar spoke on the recent announcement, claiming part of the reason for the massive switch is because of the team's goal to bring more players in to experience Wildstar. They also spoke on what "free-to-play" means to them.

Players can acquire the game, create an account, login and play through everything the game has to offer without spending any money, so yes, we do mean free.

That said, we will also offer completely optional in-game purchases that cover a wide range of player services, convenience options, and cosmetic offerings.

We place no restrictions on any of the game’s content. Every zone, every dungeon, every raid, every battleground... they’re all available. All players will be able to create characters of every race, class, and path while choosing any tradeskills they like. Characters can achieve level 50 and path level 30, just as they can under the current system. There are some restrictions on services and social functions, however.

They also touched on how the transition will work for players that have subscription time left, or recurring payment options. Players who have subscription time left (say 20 days) will earn that much time in the games' "Signature" status. Signature status means that all Free service content will be available to them, along with unique bonuses and benefits. These benefits include things like 30 active buy bids at the auction house (compared to the free versions 3 active buy bid limit), joining 5 circles instead of just 1, earning 25% extra currency, and being able to invite into and create guilds.

A full list of the differences between free and signature accounts can be found here.

Did you see this coming? Are you interested in giving Wildstar a chance (or maybe a second chance) this fall when it goes free-to-play? Let us know in the comments below!