PlanetSide plans free service

by Jennie Lees on Jan 23rd 2006 7:00AM

Sony Online Entertainment's MMOFPS title, PlanetSide, will soon feature a free-to-play service alongside its existing subscription tiers. Currently scheduled for Valentine's Day, the "Fodder Program" will allow free players full access to the game, but impose limits on their BattleRank and CommandRank, restricting their arsenal.

Also planned to kick off at the same time is an improved training system for new players, meaning that newbies should be able to jump into battle within a few minutes. SOE may be anticipating competition from the upcoming MMOFPS Huxley, or trying to attract new players in hopes of revitalising the game--but a free service should benefit anyone wishing to try out a new genre of MMO.

[via Eurogamer]

Source

Tags: free, PC, planetside

Reader Comments (5)

Thank god! I used to play Planetside, but I quit after a while because of the fact that stuff got repetitive, and the monthly price wasn't very forgiving ($12). I might actually get back into the game with this. Any idea if you can use old accounts with the free service?

Man, I didn't even know people were still playing this.

WOW

I was an avid PS gamer for quite a while actually.

THIS is good news and a great idea. That game is a fantastic experience and with the decline in subscribers this will give the game more targets and more epic battles. Really the draw is the huge huge battles, this should help a lot.

Those looking to try: DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED. You CAN be effective with a very low battle rank. Your weapons do the same damage as everyone else's. What will limit your effectiveness is the fact that you can't respawn and pick an ideal configuration for whatever predicament you are in. If a heavy armored MAX unit is holding down a console area and you don't have the certification points to have an anti infantry machine gun and anti-tank rocket at the same time... you will just have to load up the armor piercing bullets and attempt to kill it that way.

I'm going to subscribe on the 14th just to experience another month of good times.

I played the beta just as it came out, and then subscribed for a little while.

It ws a fun game, especially when you're in a very well coordinated battle... the only problem sometimes is... sometimes TRYING to join a battle on foot. It really sucks when you finally get there... and the battle is over. -.-'

I might go back, now that it's "free".