Rift finally capitulates and turns free-to-play as well
Launching alongside patch 2.3 in June.
Trion Worlds' subscription MMO Rift has finally capitulated and will become free-to-play from 12th June.
Apparently Trion did it because of feedback from players as well as watching what other MMOs were doing. "After taking our time and planning a careful transition, we are very excited to bring an enhanced game experience to everyone, without barriers," commented Bill Fisher creative director of Rift.
Rift free-to-play will launch alongside game update 2.3, which is important enough to have a title: Empyreal Assault. It brings a new zone, world event, chronicle and "much more".
Fisher, on the Rift website, stressed the game wouldn't be pay-to-win and introduced the changes in more depth. A subscription service will continue to run as it has with other MMOs that have taken the F2P plunge.
Fisher offered a little glimpse of what's next for Rift, too.
"There's even more in store for RIFT in 2.4 and beyond," he wrote. "A new set of twenty-player raids will be available, a revamped level-60 version of Realm of the Fae, more Chronicles, more quests, zone events, continued updates to class balance for both PvP and PvE, and much more. You might even start hearing about plans for what we call 3.0 - but that is a story for another day..."
