Petroglyph doing free-to-play MMO

Star Wars: Empire at War developer Petroglyph has unveiled Mytheon, the massively multiplayer online game it teased earlier this year, and said it will be out next autumn.

Mytheon is free to download and play and then powered by micro-transactions. Items for sale will include double-experience potions, clothing and "premium bundle packages for those who wish to further enhance their experience", according to the Mytheon website.

Despite a history steeped in strategy, Petroglyph has opted for an action and collect-'em-up blend, whisked with various role-playing flavours. There's three classes, each based on a particular skill: healing, summoning, and presumably fighting, although there's no evidence to back this up yet.

Abilities are acquired through Power Stones, and there are hundreds to collect. Spells lie in familiar fireball, lightning bolt, heal, summon-minion territory, and solo, group and PvP elements are all present.

The setting is ancient Greece, but the plan is to expand Mytheon into other bygone mythologies using expansion packs. In its first iteration, the idea will be to banish the Greek gods from a world mortals want to rule.

Petroglyph's latest, Universe at War: Earth Assault, wasn't brilliant, but did begin to branch into the persistent online world, albeit under the - at the time - buggy and expensive Games for Windows Live (and Xbox Live) umbrella.

There are no screenshots for Mytheon yet, nor videos, but what scraps of information are available lie on the Flash-heavy website.