DC Universe Online for PS3 Is Going Free-To-Play

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DC Universe Online for PS3 Is Going Free-To-Play

DC Universe Online for PS3

What could possibly be better than battling with thousands of other players online in the first, and only, action MMO on the PS? How about battling FOR FREE? That’s right, DC Universe Online will soon be free to download from the PlayStation Store, and free-to-play with no monthly fees required.

So what’s the catch? There is none. The entire game will be open for you to play for free. We have gotten a lot of feedback from gamers asking for an opportunity to play without a subscription requirement. So, that got us thinking about how to offer access to the game in a way that allows gamers to play their way. We wanted something that would give players options. We know different types of gamers are playing – and want to play – DCUO, and we want each person to be able to play in a way that best fits their style. That’s why we’ve created three levels of access to the game:

DC Universe Online for PS3

  • Free Access – Just like it sounds. Download and play the game for free. You also get all ongoing game updates (except DLC packs).
  • Premium Access – This next level of access opens up to you if you spend at least $5 in the in-game store. Premium Access grants you additional benefits that improve your experience in the game, such as more inventory slots, more character slots, bank slots and more free Vault tickets. So all you have to do is pick up some cool items in the store or buy a DLC pack and you unlock Premium Access. The best part? Once you unlock Premium Access you keep it for the life of your account.
  • Legendary Access – With Legendary Access you can unlock the maximum level of features and benefits. To unlock Legendary Access you can pay for a $14.99 per month game pass, or save big with a discounted multi-month pass. Lifetime members are automatically granted Legendary access. Legendary Access also includes all DLC packs at no extra charge.

DC Universe Online for PS3

I know all of this sounds great for the soon-to-be new players, but it’s just as good for all of you who still play, or used to play. Current players who are currently on a month-to-month or multi-month game pass will automatically be granted Legendary Access for the remaining time on their game pass once we officially transition to free-to-play. They can continue to play and stay at the Legendary Access level, or opt to migrate to another level.

If you used to play DCUO, this gives you a great opportunity to come back and rejoin your old crimefighting (or evil-doing) friends without spending a cent. If you previously purchased DCUO at a retail store or through a PSN download and activated your account, you will automatically be granted Premium Access when you come back.

You can go to our website for more details on the three levels of access, plus a FAQ that should cover any other questions that you may have. We can’t tell you how excited we are to be making this move, and can’t wait to have you all join us in game. Talk to us in the comments below and let us know what you think. We’re listening.

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224 Comments

12 Author Replies

  • Nice. I’m definitely going to check it out. When does this start?

  • Not sure why you say its required to have trophies on paid content. There have been games free before on PSN (not speaking through PS Plus) where trophies were included. Be honest and say its how you want to capture people into paying for the game. Which is understandable, just not a whopping $15 dollars a month.

  • yeah i was gonna download this but since i have to pay to get the trophies f**k that.

  • Sweet. As long as I can keep getting the other trophies for my BD version I am happy

  • Wow you get access to trophies for 15 dollars a month. Sign me up…NOT!!!

    I have another post that’s being censored, I guess, where I congratulate Sony on a crummy buisness model. Maybe you’ll get to see it, but probably not. Must have hit a nerve with one of the key words I tripped on.

  • Can I just spend $5 and unlock trophies? Or do I need to do the monthly thing?

  • This is huge news… so unprecedented… so unexpected… so like Sony, to give out free games.
    Much love Sony, This was the right move for this game, great game… the game is driven by it’s user-base, This can only make the game better. Not to mention the ripples from this should inspire other companies ie. Square/Enix, and Blizzard, before you know it maybe we’ll have some waves.

    I’m super-excited because now my kids and wife will enjoy starting accounts and playing with me, without having to pay a seemingly ridiculous amount of $$ truly the only thing that kept us from doing so. So soon playing DCUO will synonymous with owning a ps3… I’m going to do exactly what Sony wants me to do and tell freaking EVERYONE!, they deserve it for a move like this.

  • So how soon? The next update? Also how big is the download going to be?

  • Yea can you give us a loose timeframe on when this is probably going to happen?

    Doesn’t have to be a concrete timeframe, I’m just curious as to whether I should start alerting my friends and family to this now or wait a little as too not have their anticipation stagnate.

    • At this point we are targeting late October. Still a number of thing to get ready as well as the needs of our partners at DC and SCEA to sort through. We will give an update when we have a solid date.

      Lorin

  • /Dance or whatever you guys do in DCUO. I’ll learn.

  • Now I can finally recreate my Hulk!!!!!

    I only joined plus for the beta for this game, and then it only lasted a week!!!!

    No way I was gonna let them sucker me in that easy, LOL>

    But free to play is right within my budget and so you can bet you will see a huge green monster stomping around online again someday soon, this is sweet, I cant wait.

    I wish they would add something along the lines of radiological powers, to make Hulk more like Hulk and also open the doors for all the radiation enhanced superpowers we have all come to know and love.

    Also the one power they really need to add is the ability to shrink or go super big. The cartoon at the begining shows a super huge chick being taken out, but the game has no such option, this needs to be resolved.

  • When is DCUO going free-to-play?

  • Sweet. I’m going to give this a try now. I never have liked the idea of paying to play my games. It’s why I don’t get into MMOs, but this is the first MMO I’m going to give a shot.

  • It’s pretty audacious of you guys to force people to spend $15 a month just to be able to get trophies.

    Free Realms has trophies right off the bat and it’s FREE!

    Elemental Monster is a $0.99 game and has trophies that don’t require anything extra.

    Not even letting premium people get access to trophies is a load of bull.

    I paid full price for this game plus subscribed for a few months. I already paid my dues to get access to new trophies. This is just gouging people who want trophies.

  • Those screen shots must be from the PC version unless this game had a massive graphics update, the game didnt look that good when I played the beta thats for sure.

  • Calm down people, DC Universe is giving people a chance to play part of the game FOR FREE, another majority of it for $5 a month and the Full Game at $15 a month.
    http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/free/
    http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/free/faq.vm

  • This is great to see. When they offered Free Realms for free and lifetime membership for $35, we jumped right on that and play every day. We won’t even touch monthly subscription games, otherwise. That said, we do spend plenty of money on in-game stuff to support it. It’s just that, if we’re having a rough month, it’s nice to decide how much we spend.

    We do the same with Playstation Home. Some months, we may spend as much as $100, but enjoy the freedom of not HAVING to pay each month in order to play, if that makes any sense. I guess it’s also because we keep what we spend money on, instead of buying time.

    It’d be great if DCUO followed the same model.

  • Ehhh… so the money I dropped on the PC version and have paid into monthly… now just means nothing as the game is completely free on PS3? 0_o. Not kewl.

  • Whoa, this had a lifetime option? I did not know that. With a level cap of 30, and that taking about a week or two to hit… how many years can you do that for?
    Anyhoo, for the people asking about the retail disc, yes it makes total sense that you can boot from the disc, but at this point it’s probably safe to say that the majority of the game you’re actually playing is on your hard drive with patches and whatnot.

  • In thebegining I thought paying full price for the game and getting a monthly service fee was a bad idea. I also thought $15 a month was too high.

    Now we’re cooking with this deal. $5 is more than fair. I probably pay that with Home (on average) as it is.

    Let’s review:

    Home – Free!
    DCUO – Free!
    Free Realms – Free!
    PSN – Free!

    Sony is sure under cutting the competition!

  • I don’t know this game yet but will be pretty much like Champions Online

  • This actually looks nice! Letting people play for free means more people will try it, thus letting there be a bigger opportunity for more customers.

    I’m definitely going to give it a shot!

  • Lorin Jameson you have not replayed to the question asked several times about trophy saport as there are games that are free and have them.

    as to DCU is 2000 in game money a lot? I’ve only really played FF XI and 2000 gil is not a lot at all it wont even let you bye npc armor

  • is there a typo is it gonna be a free download AND free online or am i still reading it WRONG???

  • BEST NEWS I HAVE HAD IN A LONG TIME!

  • So will I get in game credit for the $100 I spent on CE and the 75 dollars I’ve spent on monthly subscriptions. This is excellent news if you’ve invested nothing into this game ever. For those of us who have paid this stinks.

  • @73 I believe it’s going to be 100% free, and 100% free, If you’re a trophy hunter all you’ll have to do is opt in for the legendary status for a few months, which is usually discounted from the usual $15 one month fee to approx $35-ish(somewhere around this amount) if you buy 3 months at once.

    also if you’re not a fan of paying monthly fees to play, you could switch back to premium after getting all your trophies etc. Sounds to me that you can get one step higher than the free account simply by buying something from their in-game store, that’s in game content or DLC – expansions – add-ons, etc. and premium is permanent once you attain it. But sounds like Legendary is necessary for trophy earning, but also it’s not a permanent state.

    The business model is very flexible for the studio, and for the players, and that’s brilliant, even before factoring in all the ‘free’ being thrown around… SOE has made a good, solid move with this.

  • PS3 requires paid games for trophies? That’s news to me. Doesn’t Free Realms have trophies?

  • Im very very very happy this has happened.. Im very big mmo fan of sony games and of this games as well. I would to give big shout to to the ones who keep asking and asking for these great thing to happen and for sony and dcuo staff for listening.. i would also like to a life time plan for the online inthe psn store so everyone can just buy that option.. becuase it really worth it in the long haul . I do think 15$ a mth is great but i do think it should be 12$ a month , but im not try to chew the fat more than it already been chewd. So

    thank dcuo staff.. than playstaion legionairres out there who keep up the great work for the brand and it games devs to give us these amazing things to do within the brand..

    mcbuttz78
    vp-psn legionairee group

  • I meant thank you ps legionairee fans and gamers out there.. sorry for the typo error above.. let keep up the great work.

    mcbuttz78
    vp-psn legionairee group

  • This is welcome news to me, my sub was just about to finish up and I still have alot of work to do to even be able to play the FL Alerts. Here’s my question, You say Legendary Plan has access to ALL DLC does this include other things in the Marketplace such as Arkham Asylum Joker pvp skin or any of the other Skins & Gear?

    Also How about some PS Home Support? I’d luv to see some outfits or objects. A JL Trophy Room Public space, Maybe a Personal Space or several :) Oa, Batcave, FoS, JL Watchtower etc. various props and memorbelia. Dont waste this golden opportunity people.

  • @75 marlyt

    So you bought a game half a year ago, you have played it no doubt lots since then, you know a lot of the in-game information/strategies, you have a league? or maybe some friends? and you also know that the game takes many people to do some of the more lucrative events… you can’t see the silver lining in this?
    What SOE has done, is taken you from being a current player, amongst other players who play together and have accomplished much of the same godly tasks, and given you the option to become a mentor, a mastermind, an in-game god, to many more potential peers(most of which are going to have little clue what to do at first)… possibly building an amazingly powerful new alliance with new players who don’t feel the same passion for a game like this, that you or I do… (probably due to not ever being willing to pay monthly to try the caliber of game you get for paying monthly)

    This guy wants his money back…? Please…. give it up dude… If you really feel that burned, be that guy that is determined to help everyone, and lead a powerful charge into the game world… get what you paid out of it… if you haven’t already.

  • @61 The Hulk man sorry to say but HULK is owned by MARVEL not DC. lol:)
    This is a really great move though.

  • This is great news – I’m looking forward to playing DCUO.

    In my mind, it’s hard to commit to both paying for a game and then paying monthly to continue to play it. I don’t mind doing one or the other.

    The other thing I’ll suggest is that if I don’t log in to DCUO for a month, Legendary shouldn’t auto-renew. It also should carry over, or automatically extend your period. I’m not saying I should get credit for each day I miss, just that if you take a month off from the game it shouldn’t keep charging, and should encourage you to come back.

  • I paid $60 for this game off the shelf (well, actually it was a gift, but that’s besides the point) — will I still be able to get trophies when the game goes free-to-play?

    Sony can’t really say I haven’t paid for the game. It cost me as much as any other game from a store, which all have a full set of trophies.

    I was excited about coming back until it was implied I won’t be able to earn trophies — they give a fun incentive to play and work towards, for many of us.

  • Great! Now I will buy it! THANKS!

  • sorry just thought of this after post, I read that there will be a limit on cash and how many characters we can have. whats the plan for cash as I already have over the limit, and what will happen to all my characters that I will be over limit on as well? I have 9 characters 6 of which were for my platinum other 3 were friends wanting to make a character up. will there be any way i can transfer them over to another user profile or something so they dont lose their creation when they come over and I finally allow them time to play since I wont be hogging the ps3 (since i wont be on a time limit anymore :) ) also how about a way to save or transfer any rare Hero or Villan Gear over from my alts to my main? I worked hard for some of this stuff I dont wanna lose it.

    ps 1 last thing make the VAULT have MORE DROPS. if your gonna severly limit our access to it make it even more valuable.

  • Didn’t buy it since it had a monthly cost. Still not gonna buy it due to limited free to play.

    I want all or nothing!

  • that doesnt make much sense for trophies if i remember right that other free mmo does? if im mistaken what if you own the disc it will not be free then so just because they aren’t legendary (after they stop there subscription) doesnt mean u should have the right to take away trophy access

    so this really what it boils down to say i get dcuo today never buy a month of access i did pay for it but i just didnt pay monthly does this take away my trophy access?

  • So you have to be “Legendary Access” to get trophies? Why not make a “Premium +” access where its same as premium, but you are able to collect trophies?

    Also when can we expect the retail BD-disc massive price drop? Game is pretty huge, and is 25% of my monthly bandwidth. Also hoping if I go that route it’ll have trophies. :P

  • Why not make a “Premium +” access where its same as premium, but you have spend $25+ on the in-game store and it lets you be able to collect trophies?

  • OMGFL wow cant wait

  • I own the blu-ray disc version but I would like to download the free-to-play version so that I no longer have to swap the disc in and out of my PS3. If I use the free-to-play version will all my characters and account info be accessible?

  • Great idea on sonys behalf and with me loosing my job and barly being able to keep up the monthly fee but this might make it worth my while to keep playing it thx sony

  • And to answer your ? narwhalSTAB the answer is yes if u download the the game or have the disc as long u keep ur character save info on ur hard drive youll be just fine

  • So what they say is true.
    All MMO’s will be f2p in due time.

    Can I get a synopsis on the trophies for f2p?

  • Very interesting stuff. I played the BETA and it was alright but couldn’t justify a subscription for it.

  • right… because i totally needed ANOTHER reason to anticipate october/november.
    Sony, i Love and hate you soooo much right now.

    I can’t take this anymore, i really do kind of think you’re being a jerk by doing this to all of us.
    Battlefield 3, Batman, Uncharted, The Vita, Uncharted GA.
    Just show me a bunch of stuff that i want more then ANYTHING THAT I ALREADY HAVE, and then not let me have it for months.

    Seriously, if sony wants to surpass all the competition, start launching at least 2 AAA titles during the summer drought.
    Then even the Microsoft-Soft-Skulls, would start to see the light.

    But seriously, i’m tired of waiting….
    Gimme please?!

  • Oh! and i left out Payday: The Heist!
    Which I’m getting for free, Via Playstation PLAY!

    But seriously, do something for the summer season next year, I won’t be able to take a drought like this again.

  • So legendary subscriber will have priority at logging in when the server is full?

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