EverQuest II goes Free to Play, following in DC Universe Online's F2P transition

Written by Matt Swider on November 10, 2011

EQII F2P News: Still waiting to try out EverQuest II, but unwilling to pay the subscription fee? Now you can try this MMORPG for free.

EverQuest II is going free to play in December, seven years after this MMORPG sequel launched and a month after DC Universe Online's proven success with a F2P model. This means that you won't have to pay the $14.99 a month subscription fee to download and access the basic gameplay of EQII. SOE says that it hopes to Уgrow the gaming community through new players.Ф

To that point, EverQuest II producer Dave Georgeson said, УWe've listened to your concerns about the complexity of the subscription structure, how the separate forums between EQII and EQ2X divide the community unnecessarily, that the Live Gamer servers are under-populated, and that many people want more flexibility with payment options so they can better manage their personal budgets.Ф

This means that the game will be free to download, free to install and free to start playing. All game content through the Sentinel's Fate expansion will be available free of charge. This replaces EverQuest II: Extended (EQ2X), the servers of which are being combined with EQII into a single game with a single subscription membership structure.

An EverQuest II membership starts costing money beyond the free УBronzeФ membership and, in many ways, mirrors the DCUO F2P membership price breakdown. Silver is a one-time purchase of $5 that grants you an additional character slot, better chat options, extra inventory capacity, raises your quest journal limit, gives you the ability to create guilds. It also grants you two Advancement potions so you can level more quickly. The good news is that the Silver membership is a one-time purchase, so you're permanently raised to that membership level. There is no recurring fee for this pack or membership.

EverQuest II Gold membership costs $15 a month, just like DCUO's Legendary tier, and gives you unrestricted access to the game. Access to all 24 classes (that's three times as many as Silver and Bronze), 7 character slots (instead of two or three), the ability to equip Legendary and Fabled items, Full access to Master character skills/spells, six bags slots for your inventory (instead of only two or three), the character coin limits of other memberships are restricted whereas Platinum and Gold are unlimited, access to the huge in-game player-to-player marketplace feature called the "Broker" system so that you can buy and trade with other players in an online bazaar, and actively hold up to 75 quests in your quest journal. While EQII Gold membership will be a recurring fee, the good news is that the subscription can purchased from month-to-month when this new F2P model kicks in.

EQII's transition from mandatory subscription to a Free to Play model seems like a wise decision given the growing trend out there. But, unlike DC Universe Online, it doesn't have the advantage of being available on a home console - DCUO is on PS3 and as we just reported, the PS3 version made up 50 percent of the new users who downloaded the F2P version in its first week. EQII's one advantage is that is has a new expansion, EverQuest II: Age of Discovery. And the EQII: Age of Discovery release date is in early December, the same time frame for the F2P transition. That could certainly move a few more copies of the MMORPG series that pre-dates World of Warcraft.