Acclaim has recently released more info about Frogster’s Chronicles of Spellborn, the highly anticipated free-to-play, or Freemium as Acclaim has recently dubbed it, MMORPG. The closed beta testing is scheduled to get underway starting November 27th, and has a release date of January 2009. Acclaim has licenses for Spellborn in North America, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and South America.
European countries will go live on the 27th of November, while Acclaim plans a simultaneous closed beta opening. Both launches will have the exact same product featuring identical Freemium (read: free-to-play, microtransaction monetization models) models, but the Europeans will act as guinea pigs, ensuring that everything is smooth sailing before the Acclaim launch.
The game has undergone some key upgrades and enhancements, now allowing more players to participate and enjoy the game. Spellborn will feature a Freemium model whereby the game will start with a free-to-play zone, but a Premium subscription service will be required to unlock additional zone of play.
The Spellborn client will be free to download and install, and will feature said free-to-play zone with no time restrictions. Spellborn will however, impose a level limit before kicking in the ‘Want to play more? Pay up’ process. Some key features of this free-to-play zone include:
- Free players are limited to the starting zones Hawksmouth and Aldenvault.
- A gameplay limit occurs at Fame level 7, when free players have progressed approximately 90% towards Fame level 8.
- Upon reaching this limit, all character progression is blocked and the player will receive a pop-up informing them of this block and what is obtainable beyond this with a premium subscription.
Some element will specifically be blocked including:
- Players will be unable to gain Fame in any way or form, frozen at a fixed amount.
- The player will be able to accept quests, but not able to complete any objectives/quests.
- Able to kill mobs, but the player will receive no kill credit. This means, no fame reward, no pep reward and no item reward.
Unable to travel beyond the zones Hakwsmouth and Aldenvault.
Acclaim’s freemium model is moderately priced, clocking in a $15/month to open all game content. A decent break from the standard $30 $15 or so per month (Thanks Aetherworld and Armory Light for the catch) most MMO players are used to via World of Warcraft. Feedback thus far has been outstanding, while MMORPG.com places Chronicles of Spellborn at #3 over the past 30 days (WoW ranks #8!), and developers have been keen to incorporate this feedback. The hype machine is gearing up, and all I can say is, it’s worth it. I personally played Chronicles of Spellborn at the Games Convention in Leipzig, and had a full walk through with Frogster Developers. Spellborn really is delivering what they’ve promised; a top notch MMO at an amazing price, with a ton of features that you’d expect at this level of development.
For more, visit Chronicles of Spellborn at: www.tcos.com
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