After 13 years, Eve Online will become free to play


The popular MMO EVE Online will soon have a free option for players, similar to what World of Warcraft offers. Beginning this November, players will be able to adventure around freely in the EVE universe without having to swipe a credit card.

However, even though the game will be free to play, there are a few restrictions involved. Warcraft lets people play for free up to level 20, but EVE’s restrictions won’t be as limiting.

With the upcoming November update there is a Clone State expansion. Players that subscribe to the game service will acquire an Omega Clone State, while free players can play as an Alpha Clone. There will be training restrictions on the most frequently used ships for Alpha Clones, and training will be a little slower in general compared to Omega State Clones. Alpha Clones will also be restricted to using a specific set of skills and skill levels.

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Also, if you are a current subscriber and decide not to renew, you can still play the game for free, but your Omega State will revert to an Alpha State clone. Any items you have previously obtained that require an Omega Clone to access will be unavailable, but players will be able to acquire those items again if they decide to upgrade to an Omega Clone again.

“We’ve been doing everything we can to bring more people into our spectacular sandbox,” developer CCP explained. “Part of our vision for the future of Eve has included more open access for some time, but with the interconnected nature of the game comes vulnerability. We knew that if the floodgates were opened in the wrong way, we could see anything from server meltdowns to the collapse of the Eve economy. Over time, our hardware has improved, code has been untangled (mostly!) and we’ve found a design we believe in. Eve is ready for this.”

all images via eveonline.com
all images via eveonline.com

You can read more about the changes coming to EVE Online next month on their blog, or you can view the video above for a full explanation of how the Clone states will work.