As of June 12, Trion Worlds is tossing away RIFT‘s subscription fee and officially making the game free to play with the 2.3 Empyreal Assault patch. As with most MMORPGs that convert to a F2P model after trying their hand at being P2P, account holders who purchase a copy of the game before June 12 will get some additional in-game benefits.
Trion promises a truly free to play experience, but is offering benefits to buyers and a subscription option for those looking to get more out of their time with the game.
Totally free to play users will be given 2 character slots and 3 bag slots to start off with, while those who have purchased the game before the deadline will have 6 character slots and 5 bag slots to get started with. Purchasing a copy of Storm Legion nabs players the souls that come with the expansion.
The subscription account tier, dubbed Patron, will be available for purchase in-game in 3, 15, or 30 day durations. The Patron subscription provides:
- 15% more currency gains
- The ability to summon the bank, guild bank, and trainer NPCs
- 10% additional mount speed
- Daily boost to PvE reputation gains
- Daily experience boost
- Daily boost to additional currencies, such as Marks of Ascension
- Daily PvP experience and reputation boost
- Loyalty rewards to reward subscribing for longer
More information on Loyalty rewards and the new free to play model can be found in the Producer’s Letter on the official site.
Trion will be streaming some overviews and previews over the coming month to give players a look at how this new free to play model will work; and a preview of the Dendrome. The stream can be found here. The dates Trion will be streaming are as follows, with the time for each one being 1:30PM PDT:
- May 17 – An overview of the free to play model.
- May 31 – A look at REX (cash shop currency), the Loyalty program, and gifting.
- June 7 – Preview of the Dendrome.
- June 14 – New content from patch 2.3: Empyreal Assault.
Head on over to the announcement on the official site to get more information on RIFT‘s shift to a free to play experience.
