Square Enix has announced that Foamstars, its Splatoon-style competitive multiplayer shooter, is dropping its premium price point and going free-to-play this October.
In a post announcing the change, Square Enix says that the game will transition from its current regional pricing to a free-to-play model on October 4th. Additionally, you'll no longer need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play the game on either PS5 or PS4.
If you happened to buy Foamstars prior to this change, you'll be rewarded with a "Legacy Gift" which includes twelve exclusive Bubble Beastie color variant skins, an exclusive Slide Board design, and the Legacy title.
Square Enix goes on to say that it'll reveal further information about how to claim your Legacy Gift via its social media channels in the coming weeks, so watch out for that if you're a Foamstars player of yore.
The publisher does point out that its pricing changes "may not immediately take effect" after the free-to-play update has been applied, advising players to "confirm that the price has been updated" before downloading the game. You wouldn't want to buy it just before it's free, after all.
While Square Enix doesn't provide an official reason for Foamstars' free-to-play transition, it's not hard to make an educated guess; player numbers are likely dwindling, so this is Square Enix's attempt to shore up a little extra interest in Foamstars.
Whether it works or not remains to be seen, but at the very least, you'll soon be able to try out Foamstars free of charge, so if you avoided it because of its premium pricing before, October's the time to check it out.
It's not hard to spot a few slightly worrying parallels between Foamstars and another PlayStation shooter, namely the recently-released (some might say "buried") shooter Concord.
They're both hero shooters (albeit very different flavors of the genre) launching into a saturated free-to-play market with premium price points, and reviews for both games aren't exactly stellar across the board.
It remains to be seen whether Concord will suffer the same fate as Foamstars, but for now, you'll be able to check out Foamstars for free on October 4th on PlayStation. You can read my review here to find out whether it's worth your while.
