Anarchy Online moves to tiered subscriptions
With the news that Anarchy Online will offer free-to-play service for another year, you might be wondering why you'd want to ... pay for the free game. Well, that free service is severely limited. You can only reach a certain level, and you don't have access to the well-received Shadowlands expansion content. The only alternative to free status has previously been Anarchy Online's large-for-the-value $14.95 monthly fee.
Funcom is now offering an in-between option, a $5/month package that gives you access to the Shadowlands on your formerly F2P account! You'll also be able to reach max level. The full-priced option still exists, and has no restrictions whatsoever in your progress within the game. There is a catch, though: once you upgrade from a free-to-play account, there's no going back. With the Shadowlands content unlocked on your account, you're always going to have to pay at least the $5 fee to keep it open.
Just the same, as Mike Schramm noted in his previous post on AO's free service, it's great to see a now-venerable title being kept open by a small group of loyal users. Thanks to RMT, a small team of content developers, and now a new tiered pricing structure, the future of Anarchy Online looks brighter than you might have expected (given the gritty cyberpunk air and all).
