Free-to-play games like "FarmVille" have become enormously successful on PCs, social networks and mobile devices, but they haven't really dipped their toes into the world of console gaming. The reasons why are obvious: Console manufacturers don't want to discourage people from buying other, non-free games. But, at E3, we learned that Sony is stepping up to the plate, allowing CCP Games to create "DUST 514," a subscription-free shooter set in the "EVE Online" universe. It isn't however, an entirely free game.
In an interview with GI.biz, CCP's CEO, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, mentioned that "In the beginning you have to pre-buy credits, so you pay something like $10-$20 to enter the game and you get the equivalent number of credits in the game once you do that. We call this the 'cover charge.'"
He continued, saying that, "We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it."
In other words, the game's not free-to-play. It's more like a free Disney World admission, but instead of being actually free, you're forced to buy Disney Bux as you go through the main gates...which can only be used in the confines of Disney World.
It's an interesting method, something that really hasn't been tried before in the console market, and I wonder if it will pay off. The key, I think, is making people aware that there's valuable content to be found, even if you're unwilling to pay more than the initial ten or twenty bucks. The game is still a ways out, scheduled for 2012, but hopefully we'll get a better sense of the value as that date nears. Until then, you can still get hooked on the obscenely difficult "EVE Online," which will have some connection to the events in "DUST 514" and vice versa.