In what is not a surprise in any way, both TERA Europe and North America are making the switch to F2P in February. The announcements come with some account tier lists that current users and prospective new players should take a look at.
For the time being, it looks like the user tiers on both sides of the water will be the virtually the same. Players who have purchased physical copies get a special tier, dubbed Founder in North America and Tera Club in Europe, that provide the same comforts those users expect from the game at no fee.
In order to maintain the game, both versions will continue to have a monthly payment account tier and will be pumping out cash shop items. No one likes to deal with pay to win cash shops. Let’s hope that whatever’s going to being offered via cash shop will not give an unfair advantage to microtransaction-happy players.
The North American TERA servers will be seeing the full F2P conversion on February 16th [Edit: 5th]. The European servers will be making their conversion at the same time. Be sure to check out their respective FAQs, linked at the bottom of the article, to get informed on the changes.
This may be the best thing that TERA‘s NA and EU players could hope for, in regards to having a more active population. The Korean server has seen a huge boom in population after its free to play announcement (300%!). Current players are sure to see at least a little more life in their servers after the conversion has completed.
I cut my subscription to TERA back in July — not because I didn’t like the game, but because there was barely any concept of endgame at the time. The game has made a lot of changes since then, and I look forward to hopping back in once the free to play conversion takes place next month. See you guys there!
Source: TERA Europe FAQ
Source: TERA: Rising FAQ
