Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve known for a while now that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free-to-play, but at first, neither BioWare nor Electronics Arts wanted to get into details when it came to restrictions for free players. Today, we might be finding out why the companies kept these details a secret for so long. BioWare has listed the free-to-play limitations on the SWTOR official site, and as it turns out, players who don’t want to pay anything to play are going to have a lot of restrictions to deal with.

In fact, the only thing that free players will have full access to is story content, meaning that they’ll be able to level their character from 1-50 and experience class stories in their entirety. Aside from that, though, you’re going to have use Cartel Coins or subscribe in order to get the full Star Wars: The Old Republic experience. For instance, free players will only be able to participate in three Warzones, Flashpoints, and Space Missions each per week, and they’ll be locked out of Operations entirely. In order to do more than what’s allowed, players will need to purchase weekly passes.

Character creation will also be limited for free players, as will the number of inventory slots. Free players won’t have access to the cargo hold until they shell out the Cartel Coins needed to unlock it, and even then, the space in the cargo hold with be limited until players pay more Cartel Coins to expand it. Fast travel cooldown will be longer for free players, and they’ll only have one available Crew Skill slot, with the option to buy more slots with Cartel Coins.

While all of that is sure to make players at least mildly upset, BioWare has put in place one restriction that might make their anger boil over: free players won’t be able to equip most purple items. Sadly, if you want to equip some of the best items in the game, it looks like you’ll have to pony up for a subscription or purchase a license from the Cartel Shop. Whereas once we thought that going free-to-play would be a great idea for Star Wars: The Old Republic, after seeing all of these restrictions BioWare and Electronic Arts are placing on free players, we’re not so sure that’s the case anymore. What do you think?

Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play limitations detailed is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Piracy on PC is a big deal for publishers, but Ubisoft always seems to be in the spotlight when there’s a new story on piracy or DRM. It’s hardly a secret that Ubisoft has major issues with piracy, but before it’s never really gotten down to hard numbers. Today, that changed in an interview with GamesIndustry International, in which Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that Ubisoft experiences a piracy rate of 93-95% on its PC games.

That’s why the publisher will now be focusing on free-to-play, because Guillemot says that will guarantee income for the company. According to him, free-to-play will allow Ubisoft to get payments from countries where its games are pirated the most, and he continued by saying that such a transition is a way to make sure that the company gets long-term income:

It’s a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it’s only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content.

Ubisoft has come under fire many times in the past for implementing DRM that forces consumers to have a constant Internet connection while playing. It’s also caught some flak for habitually releasing the PC versions of its games after the launch of the console versions, which is a trend it will be continuing with the upcoming Assassin’s Creed III. There has been no lack of negative comments directed at Ubisoft for these practices, so maybe this increased focus on free-to-play titles will mean less always-on DRM.

That 93-95% piracy rate quoted by Guillemot seems to be incredibly high, but if it’s legitimate, then it’s kind of hard to blame Ubisoft for implementing that DRM gamers hate so much. Nevermind the fact that Ubisoft would be missing out a lot of money that way, but shareholders would be on Guillemot’s case all the time, trying to get him to come up with a solution to the problem. We’ll see if this free-to-play shift ends up working out soon, as the company announced a number of new free-to-play titles at Gamescom. Stay tuned.

Ubisoft claims 93-95% piracy rate on its PC games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this week, Madfinger made its mobile FPS Dead Trigger free-to-play on the iOS App Store. That iOS transition came after and earlier switch to free-to-play on Android, with Madfinger saying that the piracy rate on Android was just too great. It seems that piracy was driving the decision to go free-to-play on iOS as well, but whatever the reason, the switch appears to have worked: Dead Trigger has hit 1 million downloads on iOS, just a few days after going free-to-play.

Madfinger announced the milestone on its Twitter account today, but it’s unclear whether this 1 million figure includes the number of purchases that took place before the free-to-play transition. Either way, 1 million downloads is still a substantial amount, especially for a small indie developer like Madfinger.

Of course, it isn’t very surprising that Dead Trigger has hit 1 million downloads. It’s a flashy FPS, and Madfinger got quite a bit of publicity when it announced that the game was going free-to-play on Android due to rampant piracy. The studio got even more attention when the game mysteriously went free-to-play on iOS, so it was the perfect combination of publicity, controversy, and the word “free” that propelled Dead Trigger to this 1 million milestone.

Madfinger has yet to divulge any Android download numbers, so perhaps it’s safe to assume Dead Trigger isn’t doing as well on Android as it is on iOS? Even if that’s the case, we imagine Madfinger is experiencing a sizable boost in Android numbers, so it seems that the switch to free-to-play was once again a winning decision. Now that the game has gone free-to-play, those who actually paid for the title will be getting a gift of 25 gold and 10 casino chips with the next update, and that bonus appears to be coming to players on all platforms. Keep it tuned to SlashGear – we’ll be sure to update you if Madfinger shares any additional details about Dead Trigger‘s newfound success!

Dead Trigger hits 1 million iOS downloads after free-to-play switch is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We all knew it was going to happen eventually, but today BioWare and Electronic Arts made it official: Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play. It seems that the Star Wars label and the BioWare name just weren’t enough to get the necessary amount of people to subscribe, so now the companies will see if a switch to free-to-play will provide a boost to user numbers and revenues. Though the transition won’t be happening until this fall (that’s as specific as EA was), there are some changes happening soon that current players will want to know about, so read on to find out more.

After the transition eventually happens, SWTOR will come in two different flavors: a subscription-based model and a freemium model. Those who choose to pay the monthly subscription fee will have access to all of The Old Republic‘s of features, and will be getting a monthly Cartel Coin bonus. Cartel Coins are BioWare’s funny money for The Old Republic, as they allow users to buy “customizable gear and convenience features” from the new Cartel Store. Free-to-play users will be able to play all of The Old Republic‘s 8 classes to level 50, but there will be a few restrictions that can be removed through microtransactions.

Current and former subscribers will get 150 Cartel Coins for each month they paid the subscription fee, so if you were planning to return to The Old Republic once it went free-to-play, you might want to consider jumping back in before the transition happens. BioWare also says that starting in August, the game will be sporting a new $14.99 price tag, allowing users to get in on the cheap before the switch. BioWare has launched an FAQ that answers many more questions about the transition to free-to-play, so if you’re currently subscribed, we recommend that you give it a look.

Making the switch the free-to-play has worked wonders for many MMOs in the past, and we expect that The Old Republic‘s popularity will skyrocket once the change is implemented. BioWare and Electronic Arts stand to make a lot of money if the transition is successful, which begs the question of why this didn’t happen back in February, when user numbers started making a sharp decline. It was probably pride that made them resist, but once the transition actually occurs, we have a feeling that both companies will wish they had bitten the bullet sooner.

Star Wars: The Old Republic going free-to-play later this year is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Pre-orders for FreedomPop’s WiMAX iPhone case began in May with the company offering 500MB of free data for those willing to pay $99 for the case. The company is hoping to shift free customers onto a paid model later on, but for now is offering the data for free. The case makes use of ClearWire’s WiMAX, but GigaOm reports that FreedomPop will be leveraging LTE in the future.

FreedomPop is said to have signed a deal with the Now Network that would make use of 3G and 4G services later on in the year. The company plans to offer an iPhone case that will have WiMAX, LTE, and CDMA radios for the best possible coverage. As the licensor’s LTE network becomes more robust in 2013, FreedomPop will begin to phase out the WiMAX radios and rely primarily on LTE.

500MB of free LTE access every month doesn’t sound so terrible. More data can be acquired too, with FreedomPop hoping users will leverage social networks to promote the brand and earn up to 1GB of access. FreedomPop customers can also transfer data between each other’s accounts if they’re feeling particularly generous. Even if you go over the free limit, data can be purchased outright as normal at one cent per megabyte.

FreedomPop to add LTE by the end of the year is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.