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Final Fantasy XIV throws free week for its first anniversary
Here's a good way to round out your August: by returning to Final Fantasy XIV for a free week courtesy of Square Enix. The studio is celebrating the first anniversary of the game's relaunch (no, there never was a game before A Realm Reborn. You must forget... forget...) by giving a week of free game time to former subscribers. Anyone who previously played FFXIV can enjoy the title from Friday, August 22nd, through Monday, September 1st. Final Fantasy XIV recently released Patch 2.35 with hunting and crafting improvements.
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online sunsetting in September
It looks as though Disney is going on a good old-fashioned reaping today and culling some of its less-profitable MMO properties. In addition to shuttering Toontown Online, the Mouse House is sunsetting Pirates of the Caribbean Online on September 19th. The official announcement informed players today of the sad news and explained the decision to cancel this title: "The Walt Disney Company is committed to offering high-quality, entertaining play experiences in both online virtual worlds and mobile apps. At this time, we are shifting our development focus towards other online and mobile play experiences, such as Club Penguin and a growing selection of Disney mobile apps." The upshot of this is that the final month will be playable for free to anyone interested, and any players who paid up past August 20th will receive an email with details regarding refunds.
Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD available for free through new Free Play program
Touch Arcade blogs about iOS games, and they've just announced Free Play, which will periodically feature selected iOS games for free. There are quite a few programs like this around, of which Free App a Day is probably the most popular. But a lot of those programs do things such as charge developers to be promoted on the service, essentially selling installs to boost chart listings, Touch Arcade's Eli Hodapp tells TUAW that this program will specifically pick games based on quality. "Everything 'free' nowadays," he says, "has a catch deserving of a giant asterisk and a load of fine print. We just want to work with developers to get people playing their games." Free Play will target games chosen by the site's editors as quality titles and one that have only been sold as paid apps, making them free for a limited time. "Take your typically heavily promoted free game," Hodapp says. "Chances are moments before the game goes on sale, an update lands that totally rebalances the game into a free-to-play [in-app purchase]-powered experience, at which point it's hardly even a 'sale' or 'deal.'" The Free Play promotion will offer new titles periodically, and Hodapp says the plan is to offer selections "as often as we can but seldom enough that they still feel special." The first title chosen to go free is Crescent Moon Games' Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD, a 3D-roleplaying game that's been popular on the App Store. It'll be interesting to see which titles are chosen with a strategy like this, and the end result is a great one: We all get more free games.
The Secret World will open to everyone during one-month celebration next weekend
Besides answering questions from viewers while hoofing it around London and Kingsmouth, the developers of The Secret World revealed this tasty tidbit during the official livestream that just wrapped up: TSW will be open for anyone to play next weekend. To mark the one-month anniversary, Funcom will be hosting events, giving players fireworks to set off, and offering rewards for completing a set series of missions. But more than that, gamers interested in checking out the game will be able to log in for the weekend and experience it for themselves. Players will be able to use accounts created for beta even if they did not purchase the game; those who don't have an account can make one in order to participate. The devs promised that more details would be forthcoming. If you've been waiting for a chance to delve into the conspiracies of The Secret World and see what all of the hullabaloo is about, mark your calendar. And we'll keep you informed as more details are released! [Source: The Secret World official livestream]
Play Champions Online for a week without paying a dime
How much of a game can you experience in a week? Do you think you could hit the level cap? Could you make a full army of alts? Could you make friends and have a reason to keep playing? As part of its anniversary celebration, Champions Online is inviting players to see what they can do with a week of unfettered access to the game. From September 1st to the 7th, anyone can register and play the game completely free, whether or not the player has purchased the game in the past. All that players have to do to take part is sign up on the official page, which means registering an account if you haven't done so previously. Then, for the whole of that week, you'll be able to access everything in the game as if you were a normal subscriber. To sweeten the deal for existing players, there will also be a promotion running in the C-Store, with nearly everything at a 20% discount. It's hard to say no to a free week of a game, so if your interest is piqued, sign up for a free week's worth of Champions Online now.
Get tricky with free weekend of RUSE on Steam
Interested in checking out RUSE, but worried you'll get duped into a Ponzi scheme somehow? Fear not! Valve's digital distribution service Steam is opening up Ubisoft's upcoming trickery-based RTS for free all this coming weekend. Oh. No, you're right -- that doesn't seem to protect you from the Ponzi scheme situation whatsoever. Oh well! At very least you get to check out a game for free, right? We'd suggest pre-loading the game starting right now (available here) so that you can begin duping people left and right when the open play kicks off this Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. PDT.
Issue 13 brings free weekend for players
Curious about the changes that Issue 13 has brought in, but not sure if you want to reactivate your City of Heroes or City of Villains account? Well, if so, you're in luck! The good folks at NCNC are eager to show off all the new goodies that were added with Issue 13, and have thrown open the doors to Paragon City, inviting back all former Heroes and Villains who have accounts in good standing.All returning players will be treated to a "freespec" - or free respec, as well as a free tailoring session, enabling players to take advantage of the cool new costume options. Beyond that, there's new Cimerora and Midnight Squad story arcs to check out; new powersets; the option to have two builds enabling players to have a "solo" and "party" build - or a PvE and PvP build they can switch between; the Leveling Pact option if you're rolling a new character with a friend; and a bunch more to read over. Of course, there's also the addition of Day Jobs to enjoy, but that works when you're logged out. We're sure you won't want to miss a minute of your free time checking out all the great new content City of Heroes has to offer!
The Lord of the Rings Online's Welcome Back Weekend event starts tomorrow
With The Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion slated to hit store shelves on November 18th, Turbine is taking extra measures to entice old players to come back with another Welcome Back Weekend. This has been done a couple of times before, so you might know the drill, but in case you don't here goes!From tomorrow through November 17th, all former subscribers in good standing can play for free, no commitment required. During that period, everyone -- former subscribers and current -- will receive 25% extra experience from monsters, which will stack with rested XP. These are pretty simple incentives, but if they're enough to bring you in, you can download either the standard or high-resolution client and get started tomorrow.EDIT: We read wrong! While the XP gains push through the 17th, the free play period only lasts through the 10th. Thanks, Bissrok.
Irth Worlds going free-to-play... for at least 2 years
A very short post on the new Irth Worlds (the name seems to go back and forth between Irth Worlds and Irth Online) website drops the bomb that any account that has been created already, and any that are created up until the 29th of February next year, will not have to pay to play. This free play will begin on November 23rd. There is an unusual twist to this one though -- it seems they can only guarantee this situation for a certain period of time, saying that these accounts will remain free for at least two years. Evidently a lot of questions came flying in, as the Irth Worlds poster Damian has made two updates to the story since.
War Rock lotto rocks Halloween
Players of War Rock, the free-play MMO from K2 Network and Team War Rock, have the opportunity to win prizes as a part of this year's special Halloween events. All cash purchases made on the War Rock website until November 7 qualify players for a chance to win at the prize lottery. Instant prizes include an in-game dinar jackpot, unreleased weapons and more. Each purchase also puts players into the weekly draws for G5 gaming mice, Sound Blaster Pro sound cards, and Creative Labs headsets. The Grand Prize draw is for an Alienware m5550 gaming notebook. Check out the full list of prizes, terms and conditions, and enjoy your Halloween gaming at War Rock!
Flagship's other MMO - Mythos nearing release
With all the buzz about Flagship Studios' upcoming game, Hellgate: London, it hasn't been difficult to forget their subsidiary studio Flagship Seattle, who are currently beta-testing their own new MMO, Mythos. Mythos, due to ship later this year, is a free-to-download, free-to-play, casual MMO which will be distributed by another Flagship subsidiary Ping0 LLC (in North America and Europe) and HanbitSoft (in Asia).
Pi Story returns for second closed beta
Pi Story (the cutesy anime-styled side-scrolling 2.5D MMORPG) has returned after a couple of months back on the drawing board for a rework. A second round of beta testing is opening up on October 26 at 6PM GMT, and closing on November 2 at 7AM GMT, with servers running from 6PM to 7AM GMT each day during the round of beta testing. Major bugs reported by players from the last closed beta round have been tested and fixed for a smoother game play. The server's performance has also been improved for less network issues. New additions to the game include more maps, a new class, and enhanced battle skills for a better game experience.
Twelve Sky public beta opens
Aeria Games and Entertainment has launched the open beta of their new MMO Twelve Sky on 12 October. During the Open Beta, Aeria will be running special events, giveaways, promotions and competitions.
