Worlds Adrift, the MMO with sky-high ambitions, will be pay-once-to-play
Bossa Studios revealed Worlds Adrift, a physics-based MMO in which players build great wooden airships and then use them to blow each other up, late last year. It was something of an unexpected announcement, coming as it did from the guys who made I Am Bread, but the game uses the potentially-groundbreaking Improbable technology, and at this point it looks very promising.
However, Bossa has apparently been struggling for awhile to settle on a business model for the game. In the end it's decided to go with the new and interesting "pay once and play" model, which allows gamers to "buy" a thing and then play as much as they want, without the need for further payments. Weird, eh?
Exactly what the price will be hasn't been determined, but the studio said it will be "competitive to the biggest survival games out there." There will be an in-game store for cosmetic and convenience items, but Bossa said nothing that will affect the balance of the game or "mess with the experience of other players" will be offered, nor will there be any "pay walls" blocking off content. For players who want to get a leg up on things, Founders Packs of various sorts will be offered, the contents of which will be determined based on feedback from users.
Those survival games the studio mentioned would presumably include Rust ($20), Ark: Survival Evolved ($26), DayZ ($35), and H1Z1 ($20), which leaves us with a fairly wide range of pricing possibilities. Also vague is the forthcoming Early Access launch date, which will be in 2016 and not later this year, as was previously expected. It's not much to go on, but given the look of this gameplay trailer from last month, I'm willing to be patient.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.